The End of Hope
by Skytower1
Summary: After over a decade in a Sentinel Hell Camp Sue Richards and a brain damaged Wasp escape. Now Sue has determined to leave humanity to its fate, but with her sanity nearly broken can she really do it?
1. Default Chapter

End of Hope

Part 1

Escape to Hell

The moment the sound stopped Sue Storm Richards noticed it. Others perhaps would not have, after all the noise had been part of her waking and sleeping life for more than a decade. It was not a loud noise, indeed it was barely perceptible to anyone more than a half a foot away. The power hum of the neural inhibitor collar was flat and low. But Sue never stopped hearing it, never stopped hating it. So when it stopped she acted as she had acted countless times in her dreams.

They were in the garden when the noise stopped. Sue and Janet Van Dyne, working on the small patch of Earth, both trying desperately to grow enough food for the coming winter. The garden was located in the center of Mutant Reservation number 4, a barren patch of land in upstate New York that had formerly been an industrial park. It was not much of a reservation anymore. What had started out as an enforced community of over a hundred mutants and mutant sympathizers had been whittled down by disease murder and suicide to just two women. Neither of them mutants. Sue wasn't sure why they kept the place open just for her and Jan, especially since Jan had long ago ceased to be a threat to anyone. But the Sentinels were robots. Conservative, uncaring of cost, just concerned with results. So the camp was kept open. Janet and Sue were allowed to live in the small-unheated hut and farm for the food they needed to survive. Five human guards and ten sentinel robots watched over them constantly.

Up until a few seconds ago, that had been more than enough.

Jim Standish was the first to die. He was 27 years old, liked the Beatles and smoked cigars. The cigars had been given Jim problems for a while now, slowing him down despite his young age. Sue suspected they were contaminated. It had been over a week since he had last raped her and two weeks since he had put out his cigars on Jan or one of her dolls. The jagged claw-like edge of Sue's invisible force field sliced through his throat silently. Jim screamed and fell to the ground, screaming hysterically and thrashing about. Sue ignored him and picked up his gun. It was a laser stun gun, one of Reed's designs and it took her only moments to reset it, overloading the stun setting to something far more dangerous, aim and fire at the Sentinel robot walking toward them. Her first shot hit the 20-foot tall robot in the neck, severing his communications array. Her next two shots sliced open his upper leg exposing the robots hydrogen fuel tanks. Her third shot punctured the tanks.

The explosion enveloped the camp in a blazing inferno. Sue tore the power inhibiting collar off of her neck, tossed the now powerless gun away, swept Jan into her arms and ran in the chaos she had created.

The industrial park had never been cleaned and the first explosion was only that. Sue turned herself and Jan invisible and used her force field to escape the smoke and heat. Sentinels crossed her path, finding her with their sensors, but the other guards fared as badly as Jason had. With their guns Sue was able to cripple the other Sentinel robots, aiming for their communications arrays and central processors, leaving the giant robots staggering around like drunken men.

Dragging a passive Jan along Sue made for the river on the other side of the park. The river was an open sewer, foul smelling and full of dark chemical waste that would take centuries to fully wash away. She reached the river just as the last Sentinel attacked. Plasma beams bounced harmlessly off of Sue's force field as she leapt into the polluted water.

"Stop or face punishment." the robot stated tonelessly. He stepped into the water, ignoring the chemicals.

Sue ignored the pain from the plasma bolts that were coming out of the mechanical man's hand and aimed carefully. Pain she could handle. There was only one shot left in her last commandeered stun riffle and the waves caused her bubble force field to bounce up and down in the chemical soup. The beam hit its mark, slicing open the Sentinels foot as he lifted it from the water. When he put the foot back down the corrosive chemicals found an easy path into his systems. After a few more steps the leg gave out and the robot fell sideways into the water. Sue braced herself as the hot chemicals short out the sentinel's power system and it exploded. The force of the explosion created a shockwave that propelled Sue and Jan down the river. In less than ten minutes Sue had finally escaped over a decade of imprisonment.

Behind them the fire and smoke went on. It would go on until it burnt itself out. Sue hoped she and Jan would be thought burned in the fire. Part of her wished they had been.

"We forgot my dollies." Jan pouted, stamping her foot. Her short mop of light brown hair and small body emphasized the child like act.

"It's ok honey I'll get you new ones." Sue said stroking her hair. Jan sighed and slumped down. Sue reformed her bubble into a more streamlined shape and sat down beside her. With a thought she turned both of them invisible. Then Sue drew Jan's head onto her lap as the currents propelled them down stream. Jan sighed and snuggled in closer to her. Sue started to stroke her friend's hair and hum a lullaby. As always she felt the scars on Jan's head and as always she did not let the anger show in her song.

The first week at the camp was Sue's introduction to hell, or so she thought. It took her years to realize that there were many types of hell, and years after that to decide that she would probably visit them all before she died.

She and Jan were the only two super powered inhabitants of the camp. The others were suspected mutant sympathizers. Lines were formed immediately and the two women were on the wrong side of those lines. The Sentinels had a precise plan for dealing with super powered beings and they followed it. Ultra detailed examinations were made of both women; then both women were sterilized, interrogated for information and released into the general prisoner population. Through it all the inhibitor collars kept them helpless.

The beatings and gang rapes that followed did not break either Jan or Sue. They fought back all the time, and paid for it. Often weeks would go by between rapes simply because neither woman was physically able to stand another attack. The Sentinels had forbidden their deaths and no one would cross the robots. During this time news filtered in from the outside. The Sentinels had taken over the country, the continent and had only been stopped there because the rest of the world threatened a nuclear war if the Sentinels went any further. The rest of the world recognized the Sentinels as the de-facto US government and signed treaties. Treaties that let the Sentinels do what ever they wanted.

Sue did not believe it at first, nor did Jan. It was hard to believe that the world would simply abandon not only the beings that had saved it so many times, but he entire population of the US, Mexico, South America and Canada as well. But as one year turned into two and two into three they both came to believe it.

By the fourth year the population of the camp was cut in half, but Sue and Jan were still outcast. A new group of guards was brought in. One of them was a tall brute named Red Maxwell. Sue had seldom seen a more sadistic man in her life. He raped both her and Jan, never caring when or where or what condition they were in. When they fought back he beat them, almost to death in some cases. In the first two months he was there Sue and Jan each lost three teeth to his club. Sue would never forget Red Maxwell. He was the first man she ever killed.

He had cornered Jan in their small tin-can hut. Sue had gone for water because Jan was too weak to get up. When Sue came back Red was there. Drunk, he had laughingly pinned Jan beneath his body and was using his club to pound small nails into her head.

Sue fought him and he loved it. By then she was too week physically to put up much of a fight, neither she nor Jan were fed more than once every 4 days. Still rage and hate drove her to give him a few good blows. This enraged Red and he drove her across the compound with blow after blow and kick after kick. The other guards and the rest of the prisoners cheered him on. Red cornered Sue against a barbed wire fenced and used a length of against her face. In doing so he had to break a piece of a fence post and the sharp edge found its way into Sue's hand. She drove it under his chin and used the last of her strength to shove it into his brain.

For a few weeks after that Jan and Sue were left alone. Somehow Sue dragged herself back to Jan and pulled the nails from her friend's head. The nails were old and rusty and Jan was soon caught in a fever. Sue tended to her with what she could find. At night she would sneak into other the barracks and steal food rations. A few times she had to fight, many times she had to kill. But by then Sue had decided that she and Jan were going to live, no matter what. Anger and hatred burned in her for the other inhabitants of the camp. The more sick Jan became the more desperate Sue became, and the more desperate the more ruthless. Jan survived; Sue's conscience did not.

Jan may have survived her fever, but her mind was mostly gone. She had the mind and memories of a 5-year-old. That didn't stop the rapes or beatings, but Jan didn't fight back anymore. She would cry and curl up in a little ball. Sue still fought back and paid for it. Jan started to make dolls of scrap wood and torn fabric, giving them the names of the fallen heroes. It was a great source of amusement to the rest of the camp and they often played Keep-a-way with the dolls. Until Sue made a doll of her own. Her doll was ridged with tiny metal spikes that Sue had soaked for days in the remains of a dead rat. Everyone who played with that doll soon got sick and died.

_I wish it were over Jan_, Sue thought as they drifted. _I wish we were just held captive in some supervillain's dungeon. But we aren't. I can't believe that I used to think of the Moleman and Dr. Doom as menaces to humanity. Doom. He was killed when they nuked Latveria. I wish he had lived, he and Reed were the only ones who might have stopped all of this._

That was a lie Sue often told herself and for a moment she actually believed it. But the moment passed and she realized that the Sentinels hadn't been born or operated in a vacuum. At any point before The Day the robots could have been stopped. But few groups had the political clout to go against a popular president and the economy of the 90's was too good to want to rock the boat. The anti-mutant rhetoric coming from the administration was the most well thought out anyone had ever seen. Arguments that seemed incredibly reasonable in specific context were used, arguments that were easily punctured once taken out of that context. But no one bothered. Sue hadn't been too worried, neither had Jan or the Avengers.

_And we were too busy protecting the world to think about our own safety,_ Sue thought bitterly. _Saving it from the Kree, the Skrull, They, the Roxxon take over attempt... battle after battle, sacrifice after sacrifice... for what? We never asked for a parade, we never asked for money... we never asked for anything. Ben lost Alicia saving New York from They... he still wasn't able to walk down the street without being jeered at. We should have noticed, but Ben never said anything. Did we show them weakness when we stopped wearing our Fantastic Four uniforms in public? We didn't think about it then, it just made for easier travel. How many times did the police harass us? Why didn't I notice what was going on?_

Jan stirred slightly in her slumber and Sue hugged her closer. The thoughts ran through her mind at night, every night, like song she couldn't get out of her head. The only way she could stop them was to plan an escape. She had planned an escape for years. Her one hope was that she and Jan could reach Atillan. The In-human's were never mentioned and they were the one group that the Sentinels had never asked about. If Atillan was still free they had a chance. If not there was still the Kree space ship that the In-human's had stored for Reed. Sue and Jan were going to leave Earth if they could, there were worlds out there where they might find some sort of life.

"But first we have to get there." Sue whispered. The sun was setting as the current picked up. Sue kept them invisible and hoped for more speed.

By the next day Sentinel robots were flying overhead. Sue and Jan abandoned the river and struck out west through the forest. They had an advantage that it was early summer, not winter. The Sentinel's thermal imaging satellites would have picked them up instantly in winter. But Sue had planned for that; she rubbed cold mud on their bodies and kept them moving through the deepest part of the woods. They moved at night and during the day Sue dug a hollow out of the Earth with her force field for them to sleep in. It was always at least 10 feet deep and they would huddle together for warmth. In the morning Sue made sure to leave no trace. They ate whatever Sue could catch, from small animals to bugs to roots. Occasionally they would see or hear a robot, but they were far off. Sue hoped that the robots would look for her in the east. If they went by her history at all they would expect her to try and get to the ocean and Atlantis. But Sue never expected any help from Namor. From what she heard in the camp Atlantis had signed a treaty with the Sentinels before everyone else. Sue hoped that the wild country of Canada could be a sanctuary for as long as she and Jan needed it. It wasn't much of a plan, but it was all she had.

If the eating was poor and the traveling was hard at least they were free. Sue had a moment of pure happiness each morning as the sun rose and she realized they were free. It was only a moment, but it was a moment to be treasured.

It was over a month after their escape that Jan rediscovered her powers. They were sleeping, taking advantage of fallen tree for shelter from a harsh northern wind. Sue slept lightly and at Jan's first shout she was instantly awake. Jan lay where she had fallen asleep huddled against Sue as she always did. She was trembling, her eyes wide with fright and the grey tunic that she wore was abandoned underneath her.

"Bad Jan." Jan whispered, hugging her knees to her chest. "Jan bad, bad Jan."

Sue hugged Jan and rocked her back and forth until the hysteria passed.

"What did Jan do that was bad?" Sue asked.

"Jan... Jan bad girl... Jan bad."

"Jan is not bad." Sue said pulling away from her friend to look Jan in the eye. It was a clear night with a full moon that gave enough light to see by. Jan looked more like a life-sized doll come to life then a grown woman. She had never been a large person and her years of child-like behavior had shrunk her in Sue's eyes. But that was a mental adjustment. Sue suddenly realized what had scared her friend so much.

"Jan got small?" Sue asked.

"Jan had a bad dream, Jan scared, Jan get small. Bad Jan!"

"Jan is not bad." Sue said.

A frightened whisper and a trembling body were Jan's only response.

"Sue says it's ok for Jan to do that."

"Not bad?" Jan looked up at Sue and the terror in her eyes infuriated the Invisible Woman. "Men say it was bad, they beat Jan, they hurt..."

"They aren't here." Sue said firmly. "Jan can shrink when ever she wants if men aren't here."

"Jan can?"

"She can." Sue said. "Try it now."

For a moment there was terror in Jan's eyes. Then she blinked and closed them. The shrinking process only lasted a few seconds. One moment she was a normal woman and the next she was a 6-inch tall fairy with wings. Almost instantly she was normal again and hugging Sue with all her strength.

"Jan bad." she whispered again and again. Sue calmed Jan to sleep with a lullaby and then let her own tears flow freely as she drifted off as well.

Over the next few weeks Jan gradually got over the fear of her powers. She took to reveling in them, calling her self: "Fairy Jan" and riding on Sue's shoulders. She stopped being normal sized at all. Jan sang nonsense songs and flittered about in the air until she got tired and Sue had to carry her. It was hard at times, Jan had a very short attention span and Sue had to keep watch for her constantly. One morning Jan flew away on a lark and it took Sue the rest of the day to find her, but not her tunic. From then on small or large Jan was nude. Sue tore a piece of her own tunic and used it as a line from her wrist to Jan's leg. This reduced her own tunic to just a halter shirt, but Sue didn't care. In the camp she had learned how easily personal modesty could be lost. Every day she and Jan were stood up against a concrete wall, stripped and then hit with streams from fire hoses. Once every three months the guards drew lots to see who would get to shave every bit of hair off of both women while the others watched. Bets were made on when the first cut would come. The guards said it was the rules, they had to keep the prisoners clean. But they only did it to Sue and Jan.

Sue kept track of time as they traveled. She moved them constantly in random directions, but gradually kept heading west. Her powers protected them from animals and once or twice they found a river or stream to wash in. Her main worry aside from capture was the weather. Neither of them would survive a winter. But speed brought with it the risk of capture. If winter closed in on them Sue's hope was to find some abandoned place that they could hide out in until spring.

Roads and highways they avoided. Now and then Sue would steal food from an isolated farmhouse, never enough to be noticed. They were scouting out a farmhouse when the attack happened.

It was an isolated farm, with barely a dirt road leading from it to a crumbling highway. There was a barn, a hen house and in the pasture some horses grazed quietly. The house was a worn two-story structure with a wide front porch. A man, the farmer Sue guessed, was tied to the porch. He was a tall man, well built with dark black hair. In the yard next to the house a woman was being held down and raped while her daughter was being held by another man and forced to watch. The woman was almost as tall as her husband, with red hair and her daughter had red hair as well.

Sue and Jan had come in late. They had been watching the farmhouse for two days, planning the best way to take what little they could. From their position they saw two motorcycles and a Winnebago drawn by a team of four horses.

There were six attackers in all. Three men, three women. Two men were starting on the rape of the woman while a third struggled with the little girl. Two of the women exchanged a bottle and took turns beating the farmer. While they did that another woman was carrying boxes from the house to the Winnebago.

"Jan help?" Jan asked with more of her old voice than Sue had heard in a decade. "Jan and Sue help?"

"Sue will help." Sue said. "Jan will stay here and wait."

Invisibly Sue sped toward the house, gliding on her force field. It only took her a minute to get there and she moved on the man who was attacking the little girl first. He was tall whip-thin man with thinning blonde hair and a tattoo of a vulture on his chin. A double chop to his neck stunned him and then Sue followed it up with a punch to the throat that crushed his windpipe. He went down grabbing at his throat and Sue turned to the two men who were raping the woman. They were twins, heavyset with no hair and broken teeth. They hadn't realized anything was going on. Sue planted her elbow into the base of one's spine and heard it crack. He fell back paralyzed and she moved to the next person. He was looking up in surprise and puzzlement as Sue's next blow took out his windpipe and his eyes.

The women had abandoned he farmer and one of them was coming toward where she thought Sue was, waving a knife wildly.

"Mutie!" he shouted. "One of em must be a mutie! Kill em all!"

He started to shout more but then fell to the Earth and clawed at the force field Sue had put around his head.

Bullets started to ricochet off her force field and Sue dropped to the ground. The woman next to the farmer had pulled a gun and was shooting in every direction. The bullets wouldn't get through Sue's force field but they could hit the little girl and her mother. Sue turned visible for just a moment and leapt away, then turned invisible again. It worked and the bullets followed her.

Out of the corner of her eye Sue saw the woman rush to untie her husband. The woman who was firing at Sue suddenly fell to the ground clawing at her face. The other woman was down on the ground not moving. It took a few minutes for the one with the gun to join her.

Sue held the force field until all of the bodies stopped twitching. Then she stood up and looked around. There was one missing.

A blast from the Winnebago hit her force field and Sue screamed in pain as the mental feed back hit her brain. She stumbled and became visible. The woman, as tall and thin as the first man Sue had attacked, stepped out of the camper holding a hi-tech gun.

"Mutie!" she snarled and fired again.

Sue rolled away from the blast and then came up and surrounded the gun and the woman with a force field. The mental feedback was rough as it exploded but Sue held on. She held the force field until the dust and smoke settled. When she released the field there was nothing left of either the woman or the gun but a small smoking crater.

Sue stood up and took a deep breath, trying to control her trembling body. The fight had taken about ten minutes and it was the first one she had been in since the escape. The fighting moves were still with her, more lethal now than they had been, but her body was still malnourished. Sue was thankful there weren't more of them.

A sharp pain in her leg caused Sue to stagger and fall. She looked down at the dart sticking out of her leg and darkness claimed her before she even realized it.

Sue woke up to darkness. She was blindfolded, her wrist held at her waist by some sort of belt restraint. She was lying on a rough carpet and the room smelled of spices and wood smoke. The sound of a muted radio came from somewhere nearby.

"She's awake mom!" the little girl shouted as Sue sat up. Her ankles were chained as well and her tunic was gone.

After a few moments a set of footsteps announced the presence of the mother.

"Ok Sheila, you go eat now."

A painful moan from close by shot through Sue's thoughts.

"Jan?" She said and tried to rise. A rope attached to the belt around her waist pulled her back. "Jan!"

"She's in the bed to your left." The woman said. Her voice held no malice, but no sympathy either.

"Most of her is anyways." the girl said with a laugh.

"Sheila go eat." the woman said sternly.

"What is wrong with her?" Sue demanded. The blindfold was fabric, she guessed it was a sleeping mask. The restraints were leather.

"She went after Jake after he shot you." the woman said. "We had to defend ourselves."

"I got her foot with my slingshot." The girl said proudly. "Took it clean off."

"Sheila!" the woman said sharply. "Go eat NOW!"

The sound of a smack accompanied the order and Sue heard the sound of retreating footsteps.

"My husband is a vet." The woman said. "Once your friend was normal he was able to treat her, but the foot had to go. Miss Van Dyne will live."

"You are welcome." Sue said dryly.

"You being here is going to cause us more trouble than the raiders Mrs. Richards." the woman said. "Even after the Sentinel's take you away we'll be marked as a mutie hot spot and bounty hunters will come from miles. It'll be years before we get any peace."

"Where am I?" Sue asked. "Who are you?"

"My name is Julia Hoffman." The woman said. "Your on our farm about 30 miles outside of La Corte, ten miles from the Canadian border, or what use to be the Canadian border."

Sue sighed and let her self slump against the wall. The rough wood was cold against her back.

"Where are my clothes?"

"There wasn't anything left of that thing." Julia said. "I'd give you something, but I'm guessing where you're going you don't need clothes."

"No." Sue said wearily. "I guess I don't. What about the raiders? Did I get them all?"

Julia hesitated for a moment and Sue could see her shifting uncomfortably.

"Yea, you got'em. I'm grateful for Sheila."

"I can tell." Sue said giving her bonds a tug.

"It's not easy for us Mrs. Richards." Julia said. "I was an engineer at Stark when the Day happened, Jake was a bio-chemist. After it was over we had to spend a month telling the Sentinels we didn't know anything, then they just turned us loose. We had nothing left in the city. If Jake didn't have this place from his parents we'd have starved. Even with this place it's been hell ever since."

"How do things stand in the rest of the country?" Sue asked. She was keeping her voice tired and broken, with no hint of the fury she felt.

"Like Mad Max come to life." Julia said. "The Sentinel's took over and laid down some new laws, no tech above tubes, no teaching above high school, no real national government... What you have now is hundreds of small territories ruled by whoever can rule'em."

Julia sighed.

"I was on the fast track at Stark, executive suite all the way. I used to have a corvette, a red corvette with flames on it, now all I have is a horse. Gas isn't legal unless you're on Sentinel business."

"I finished mom." Sheila said. "Are we going to feed the muties?"

"I'll feed them later." Julia said. "Go and get ready for bed."

"We aren't supposed to feed them are we?" Sheila asked. "At school they said it's a waste of food."

"Get ready for bed." Julia said sternly.

Sheila retreated and again Sue could see her captor shifting uneasily.

"They learn that stuff in school."

"You don't teach them the truth?" Sue asked.

"If we do and word gets out then we get labeled as sympathizers." There was the sound of a chair being moved. "It's not easy out there Mrs. Richards. Everyone and anyone could be a spy for the Sentinels or what's left of the government."

Sue said nothing for a few moments.

"Is there any resistance?" she asked at last.

"Not that's ever mentioned." Julia said. "Sometimes something big happens, but news is censored. We never hear the truth of it."

"I heard a rumor the Sentinels were built by Stark Industries." Sue said.

"Flat out lie." Julia said with some heat in her voice. "Tony Stark fought to the end, even though the government really put the screws to him. When the Day happened a squad of Sentinels walked up to the gate. Mr. Stark sounded the evacuation and Iron Man showed up to fight. Next thing anyone knew there was a big crater where the factory complex was. Never saw either of them again."

Tony Stark was Iron Man. Tony Stark was dead. Sue had known it, but hearing from someone else somehow made it seem real. She slumped against the wall and curled up into a ball.

"If it makes you feel any better the Sentinels never came out of Stark Industries."

"It helps a little." Sue said, her voice drained of all emotion. "Are you going to feed us? We haven't eaten for days."

"Just leftovers." Julia said. "All I can spare."

"Anything." Sue said. "Please."

"I'm ready for bed mom." Sheila said.

"Ok, you stay here and watch them ok? Don't touch 'em, just watch 'em."

"Ok."

Julia left and Sue heard her footsteps as they went down a set of stairs.

"You need to use the bathroom or anything?" Sheila asked.

"No." Sue said. She started to rub her head against the wall.

"Do muties use bathrooms?" Sheila asked. "Miss Hellinski says they don't."

"She's wrong." Sue said. "We use them just like you do."

"Why are you doing that with you head?"

"Headache." Sue said.

"Oh."

"Why'd you help us today?"

"You were in trouble." Sue said. "I used to help a lot of people in trouble."

"Before you wrecked the country?"

"We didn't do anything Sheila." Sue said. "Some of us were good, some of us were bad. Your teacher is lying to you."

"Why would she lie?"

"Ask her sometime." Sue said.

"Don't you dare." Julia said walking into the room. Fear and anger competed in her voice. "Sheila don't let me hear about you asking your teachers anything like that you hear me?"

Julia turned to Sue.

"Are you trying to..."

Her voice trailed away to a choked whisper, as she looked Sue in the eyes. The blindfold hung awkwardly on Sue's face. The tray of food dropped to the floor and Julie and Sheila clawed at the force fields Sue had put over their heads. She held them in place with other force fields until both mother and daughter fell to the floor unconscious.

Jan lay on the bed, nude with a chain going from her neck to the head board. Attached to her left leg was a gleaming metal cylinder that gave of a slight hum. Sue stroked her head, checked the cylinder and then took the chain off, snapping the small lock with one of her force fields. Then she turned to glare at Julia and her daughter. They were where she had been. Sue had been tied up with bondage equipment and ropes, easy enough to get out of for someone trained in escape as she had been. But for someone like Julia the only way she was getting loose was when someone freed her. Beside her Sheila was wrapped in a blanket and cocooned up to her neck with yards of rope. The girl looked at Sue with curious, yet not scared eyes.

"I thought you said no tech." Sue said.

"It's bootleg." Julia said. "Jake bought it on the black market to use on the cows. It'll work."

"I know it will." Sue said. "My husband designed it. Then he gave the patent away for free."

She left them and walked out into the hallway. Sue and Jan had been kept in what looked to be a spare bedroom. Across from it was the master bedroom, down the hall was a bathroom and across from that Sheila's room.

In the master bedroom Sue stood in shock and looked at herself in a full-length mirror. She hadn't seen herself in a mirror in years. What the refection showed was far more than mere age. The grey had seeped further into the edges of her blonde hair, hair grown a little past shoulder length at long last after years of hell camp enforced shortness. Her skin, always light, was nearly white and her eyes had retreated further into her head, as if to escape from the horrors she had seen. Sue didn't have to open her mouth to see the broken, yellow teeth and the scars on her body showed starkly against her white skin. The flesh on her body hung off of tired bones and her ribs could easily be seen. Her breasts were flat and lifeless showing the many small burn scars from cigars and cigarettes. Sue looked more like someone who had been dead for a week rather than a living person.

But the greatest scar stared back at her. A jagged half burn/half slice that started above her left eye and ran down one side of her face and across her mouth and throat. The fact that her skin was stretched across her skull like an old parchment only made her look that much worse.

A spike of white-hot rage shattered the mirror. After that Sue pulled the rage back into herself and got to work. She guessed the Jake would not be back until the next day, that meant she and Jan had to be gone soon.

Sue went through Julia's closet and found a set of expensive dresses, silk nightgowns and pajama's and other designer clothes. Julia and Jake, Sue guessed, had done some looting before fleeing the city. At the bottom of the closet was a suitcase full of cash and a jewlery box. In the dresser draw she found some pants and a shirt that fit her too loosely. Sue solved that problem with a belt but could do nothing about the shoes. The bedroom was nicely furnished, with a large brass bed covered with a thick quilt and a tv/vcr combo unit across from it. Dozens of tapes were piled next to the tv.

In Sheilia's room Sue found a tape player, some schoolbooks and a poster that she tore off the wall and ripped to shreds. The poster was one of the anti-mutant posters that had haunted New York in the years before the Day. It showed a slobbering mutant monster tearing apart a crowd of people. The monster was an amalgam of the Thing, Reed, Sue and Johny. The FF had tried suing but they had been laughed out of court by a judge who ignored all but the part of the law he agreed with. The appeal had been turned down as well.

Sue took a quick look at her captives, satisfied herself that they were still captive and then went down stairs.

Down stairs were a spacious living room with a large screen tv and vcr, a dining room with a fire place and a room with a hot tub in it. It had not been a working farm before the Day Sue realized. It had been a vacation home. The kitchen was well kept up and stocked with food. Sue concentrated and the floor turned invisible, revealing a well-hidden room. It took only moments to find the trap door after moving the fridge. In a cellar was a mini-warehouse filled with boxes and boxes of caned food.

"Leftovers." Sue whispered. "All I can spare."

Sue looked at the food and trembled. The house was clean, it was in better shape than it looked from the outside, and they had more food than Sue had seen for years.

Getting herself under control Sue went back up stairs and searched. Everything was well hidden, but not to someone who could make things invisible. She found cubbyholes and between wall spaces filled with guns and ammunition, gold, more videotapes and even a computer. Under the hot tub was a box of jewelry and a few gold bars.

She went outside. The raiders had been dragged to the side of the Winnebago and lined up. Each of them sported a knife wound to the chest. Sue doubted that Julia and her family would even acknowledge that they had been saved. Their story would be that they overcame the raiders and then captured Sue and Jan, or that Sue and Jan had been with the raiders.

Sue searched the bodies but found nothing she could use. The boots on the two women weren't her size and their clothing was too dirty to wear. Then she searched the Winnebago. Inside was a mess of money, jewelry, guns, bottles of wine and scotch, drugs and a box of grenades. On the dashboard was a list of frequencies and their assignments as well as a hand held scanner. There were a few police, some state police, some names that Sue took to be private police forces and a number of Sentinel frequencies. There was also a pair of high powered military binoculars. Sue took the list, the scanner, the binoculars and the grenades.

Three hours later Sue finished loading a supply of food into the saddlebags of one of the motorcycles. Along with the food was all the gas she could siphon out of the other motorcycle, some warmer clothing for herself and Jan, a few of the guns, the grenades, binoculars, scanner and a supply of ammo and a few of Sheila's dolls. It was a heavy load but Sue thought the bike could take it. She led it far enough away and then went back and then un-hitched the horses from the Winnebago. Then she led them to the barn and tied them off there. It galled Sue to give anything to Julia and her family, but the horses were too tame to let go wild. Returning to the Winnebago she put three grenades into the inside and was back at the house before they blew up. There was no gas, but enough of the camper burned to hide what she had taken. Then she rolled the second bike over to the barn and buried it under the compost heap. It would be a few weeks at least before they found it.

That done she went back upstairs. Jan was still asleep, and would be until the healing unit on her leg determined she was out of danger and pain.

"What exploded?" Julia asked ask as soon as Sue came into the room.

"The raiders rigged a trap in the camper." Sue said. "Don't worry, fires out, horses are safe. I put them in your barn. We'll take the bikes."

Sue carefully wrapped her up in a blanket and then turned to face Julia. Julia stared back at her calmly. There was no fear in her eyes, she knew Sue wouldn't kill her. Sue's blood boiled as she looked at the other woman. Julia was actually a little overweight.

"Really suffering." Sue said. "Not a single luxury. A hot tub, tv/vcr..."

"We pay big to have those things." Julia said. "It ain't easy, you have to wheel and deal with freaks and raiders and no one helps anyone but themselves."

"If my husband and my family had thought that way this planet would be a burnt out cinder in space." Sue said. "If I followed that philosophy you wouldn't have survived the morning."

"We do what we have to." Julia insisted not turning away. Sue walked over to her and bent down. "Everyone..."

Sue stuffed a rag into her mouth and tied it there with a tight jerk. Then she put the blindfold that she had worn over Julia's eyes.

"I ripped up the poster in your room." Sue said turning to Sheila.

"That was mine!" Sheila said with the outrage only a little girl could have. She squirmed in her bonds.

"Yea it was." Sue agreed. "I ripped up a poster that was a lie." Sue bent down so that they were face to face. "Your teachers and your mother are lying to you Sheila. Mutants weren't the problem. Mankind was. From the day I got these powers, by accident, my family and I strove to help people, just like I did this morning. We put our lives on the line countless times. We suffered pain, we faced down creatures of the dark you can't even imagine. But one day a bunch of robots came and killed my family. We weren't mutants, most of the superheroes killed on the Day weren't mutants. Nobody seemed to care. They gave Jan and I to a bunch of men who did to us a thousand, thousand times what those men were going to do to you this morning. They did things to Jan and me I hope you never even imagine. Things your mother won't tell you. Things your teachers won't tell you."

"You're lying." Sheila said.

"If I'm lying how come your alive?" Sue demanded. She lifted her shirt out of her pants and revealed a scar going straight across her stomach. "The Sentinels cut me open Sheila, I can't have anymore children. Not ever." Sue's voice choked for a moment. "And they killed my son."

"But..." Sheila stared the scar and her voice died.

"How come I'm leaving with only what I need to survive and I'm not burning this place to the ground? You maimed my friend and she never harmed you. Who was the bad gal there this morning? Ask yourself that. If mutants are as bad as they say how come you are still alive? If we're such a threat that a little girl with a slingshot could take one of us out how could we threaten the world? If we're so bad how come you're just tied up? I could kill you both easily."

Julia was struggling and making noises but Sue ignored her. Sue was looking into a pair of frightened grey eyes. They were the innocent eyes of a child and Sue was killing that child. She was replacing the innocence with reality. Sue didn't care and a part of her was even enjoying it.

_Chew on this Julia_, Sue thought. _Then tell me about pain._

"Do you believe in God Sheila?"

Sheila swallowed and nodded.

Sue gently rapped her knuckles on Sheila's forehead.

"God gave you a brain. Use it. Don't take any truth for granted that you don't find out yourself. Your mother, your father, your friends, your teachers... the Sentinels... they'll all lie. They'll lie to protect you, they'll lie to get wealth, they'll lie to get power. Don't forget what I'm telling you now Sheila."

"I won't." Sheila whispered and Sue hated the way she felt at the new tone in Sheila's voice. But better that Sheila know the truth rather than her mother's lies.

_Keep saying that to yourself Sue,_ Sue thought to herself. _And keep trying to believe it._

"Don't forget this either." Sue said. "Lies hurt, but the truth hurts more. Your mother and your father live the lie because the truth would kill them. You want to live like that, that's up to you. Living a lie is easy, living a truth hurts. The truth is mankind stabbed me and my friends in the back. They murdered and raped us and killed our children. Your mother and father didn't even try to stop them. They just did what she said they did. They ran. They and millions like them didn't help us, so when the Sentinels were through with us no one was there to help them. That's why the world is the way it is Sheila. Because your parents were cowards who went along to get along. That's the truth Sheila. And because of what your parents did this morning I'm through helping. So the next time I see a little girl like you in trouble I'm not going to help. Because of what your parents did she's on her own. So's the rest of humanity. I'd wish you luck, but the truth is I just don't care anymore."

Sheila was crying and Julia was struggling and screaming against her bonds. Sue took a deep breath and then stood up and went over to Jan. Bending down she checked the healing unit and then picked Jan up in her arms.

"Julia." Sue said in a calm and tired voice "For the record. I have never in my life owned a corvette. Of any color."

From the farmhouse Sue took her, Jan and the bike south west as fast as she could. She couldn't chance Canada, not right now with Sentinels no doubt alerted to where she had been. For two days she used her force field to move them over roads, through pastures and forest and down streams and rivers. She kept her ear tuned to the scanner. Most of what she heard was background traffic. There was an announcement of a bounty on her and Jan's head. Sue didn't know what; "Sent-Bucks" were, but she wasn't surprised that the police could collect it. Most of the chatter after that were police officers speculating on whether she was alive, dead or worth the trouble. From the radio reports she heard Julia and her husband had indeed claimed that Sue and Jan were working with the raiders. A further report stated that the "mutie-bitches" had stolen most of the Hoffman's winter food supply. When she heard that Sue stopped feeling guilty about what she had said to Sheila.

When they turned onto a two-lane highway that was filled with burnt out cars Sue began to slow down. The cars on the road were too weathered to be new. Most of them still held corpses. From the looks of the road some airplane or robot had strafed it from the air. Moving down the roadway, five feet above it for safety, was like moving though the valley of the dead. Highway scavengers had long since had their fill and moved on, but the summer was still hot and the bugs were not done yet. A nest of wasps had built their home in an old red Ford Mustang, in the chest of the long dead driver. They flew in and out through the entrance in his throat. Two of the wasps crawled over the corpse's mirrored sunglasses.

The road came to a stop at a wrecked bridge. Sue stopped at that point and took a deep breath. She was bone tired and hungry. The bridge spanned a two-hundred-foot gorge and at the bottom was a dry riverbed. The riverbed was filled with the ruins of the bridge and the cars and trucks that had been on it. Night was closing in and at night her invisibility would be useless. Sue took out the binoculars and looked down, scanning the wreckage. There was no sign of life save for a coyote. Satisfied she put the binoculars away and used her force field to float them gently down to the bottom.

She guided them over to a hollow that had been formed by part of the bridge coming to rest on a semi truck. Sue packed them both in carefully, put the bike in front of the hollow as a gate, put a gun within reach and then checked on Jan.

"How you doing Jan honey." Sue asked in a soft voice as her friends eyes fluttered open.

"Sue? Sue ok?"

"I'm fine." Sue said. "How's Jan?"

"Jan broke." Jan said starting to cry. "Lost foot. Jan's foot not like rabbits foot, Jan's foot unlucky."

"It's ok honey." Sue said softly. The healing unit emitted a soft beep and Sue unhooked it from Jan's leg. It revealed a smooth stump at the end of Jan's leg. There was no scaring, no infection. If Reed had been given another few years the unit might have even grown the foot back.

"Will Sue leave Jan?" Jan asked quietly. The question forced the memory of Reed out of Sue's mind. "Sue should, Jan no good. Jan hasn't been good for years."

"I won't leave you Jan." Sue said. She leaned over and brushed the hair away from Jan's forehead. "I'll never leave you, no matter what."

"Jan... I can't help you Sue." Jan said and for a moment the woman that was broke through the child. "We both know it... I... Jan..."

"I'm not leaving you." Sue said firmly.

Jan collapsed back onto the blanket and the moment past.

"Jan sorry Sue." Jan said, once again the child.

"It's ok Jan." Sue said. She had suspected that the long sleep induced by the healing unit might help Jan's mind, Reed had hinted that about the unit. He'd been exited about the possibilities. But it hadn't been enough.

"Here Jan." Sue said holding up a Barbie Doll infront of her.  
"Carol!" Jan said.

"Yes you can call her Carol." Sue said. "Are you hungry?"

"Yes, very."

"Ok you play with Carol while I fix us something to eat ok?"

"Ok."

While Jan hummed softly to herself and talked to the Barbie Doll Sue opened one of the cans of tuna fish and milk. They had enough for at least a week, maybe two. Jan ate quickly and settled into a true sleep. Sue sighed and leaned back against the stone. She didn't sleep, much as she wanted too, but she didn't stay awake either. Her eyes half closed, her breathing steady, Sue eased her mind into the twilight between awake and asleep. Here she could rest, she could dream, but not be caught unawares.

Daylight brought something neither Sue nor Jan had enjoyed for many years: a good breakfast. Though Sue hadn't dared risk a fire at night she lit a very small one and heated up two cans of spaghetti and meatballs. After they ate Jan shrunk down to sit on Sue's shoulder and they explored the ravine.

Though she hadn't been able to tell the night before Sue now guessed that the roadway had become a battleground. A group of refugees had been caught between two small armies and paid the price. All that were left of the dead were bones, most picked apart. It had been a savage battle. One group had been the Anti-mutant Brigade and the sight of their grey uniforms angered Sue. The Grey's had been the back up troops for the Sentinels. Fanatical, vicious, well trained and paid they had followed in the robots wake and taken out any survivors they deemed sympathetic to mutants. The other fallen dead wore the yellow jumpsuits of A.I.M. In between them were families, single men and women and children. Sue found one skeleton in front of a bombed out station wagon. It was a man with half his chest blasted away. Inside were the remains of a woman and a baby. A pacifier was still in the baby's mouth.

Further along a man in a business suit lay face down. In his hand was a tightly gripped lottery ticked. Sue had to laugh when she pried it from his still clenched bones. It was a winning scratch ticket, 50,000.000 dollars.

There were more and more cases like that, people fighting to the death or running in terror, attacking or defending. When she found the turned over ambulance Sue realized how truly bad it had been. In the ambulance were the remains of a child, about ten Sue guessed. From the looks of the scene one of the Grey's had shot his plasma riffle though the ambulance attendant to get to the child. The ambulance had been stripped completely.

"Bad." Jan said.

"Yes." Sue agreed.

In a kind of shock she wandered over the battlefield. Sue had been in battles, she could tell at a glance how someone had died. Neither the AIM soldiers or the Grey's had cared about who stood in their way, and none of the people caught in the battle tried to help each other at all. Families fought and died together, but Sue saw evidence that they often fought against each other instead of the soldiers. Those cars with the most bodies around them that were not soldiers were the expensive cars.

The sun and the temperature rose as one. It was late morning when Sue found something useful. An overturned van with the logo of the New York Times yielded bundles of different newspapers. Sue and Jan sat in the shade of the truck and started to read. Jan laughed at the comics while Sue looked through the headlines. They were dated June 22 of 2000; 2 years after Sue and Jan had been captured. Most of the stories dealt with the increasing chaos in the country and the calls on the President to reign in the Sentinels and the Greys. Sue was shocked to learn that the Baxter Building had been taken over as Sentinel HQ. Reed had set the computers to clean their memories in case of a takeover from any source, but the machinery was still there. It burned her that products of his genius were being used to help the robots.There were articles on how mutants were being treated in captivity, all of them propaganda.

One story turned Sue's heart to ice. It was headlined; "In-human City destroyed by Nuclear attack." She read the story and realized that the Sentinels hadn't asked about Atillan because they hadn't known about it. But Sue guessed Black Bolt hadn't wanted to take any chances so he decided to launch the city into orbit and take his people to the stars. The Sentinels spotted it; thought it was Asteroid M, Magneto's base, and attacked. The city was brought to Earth in an explosion that took out the city of Toronto.

_That's it then, _Sue thought as she put the paper aside. _We have no friends left. We have no place to go._

That wasn't exactly true of course and she knew it. If they were able to get out of the Sentinels' domain Sue was sure that she and Jan could find sanctuary. But that sanctuary would come at a price. Whatever country allowed them in would no doubt want Sue to help them fight the Sentinels.

Sue sighed as she looked out over the battlefield. She hated the robots, but they were just robots. Humanity had built them to destroy her and her friends. Now that humanity had lost control of the force it had unleashed, that same humanity would demand that Sue help stop that force. It would be her duty to help save mankind, she who had been blessed with greater power than the rest of them.

The arguments and counter arguments ran through Sue's mind. Her old self, the woman who had been part of the Fantastic Four, would have agreed without hesitation. That part argued that only a few men had built the Sentinels. But that argument withered and died as Sue looked out over the battlefield. It withered and died as she remembered the day of her capture in New York. A capture not by Sentinel robots or even of Grey's, but by police aided by a crowd. It was buried when she thought of Julia complaining of her hard life.

Sue stood up and looked at the death around her.

"I'm through fighting for you." Sue said standing up and gazing at the field of corpses. She spoke in a quiet voice, almost a whisper. Still the Earth seemed to shift beneath her feet and a breeze picked up where there was none before.

_We'll go south for now,_ Sue thought standing up. _Winter is coming and we'll have a better chance in a warm climate. There might be one last place, the old Kree facility in the Arctic Circle... Reed never had a chance to tell anyone about it. But Antarctica..., maybe a ship is still functional. But Antarctica is a continent and a half away, all of it controlled by the Sentinels or their allies._

For long minutes despair gripped her, then Jan laughed at a Family Circle cartoon and anger replaced despair.

_Jan deserves something better than this, _Sue thought. _So do I damnit! If we are the last two..._

"You wanted us gone, fine. We're going." She said to the battlefield. "I don't care what it takes, who I have to go through or who gets hurt." Sue closed her eyes tightly against the tears that were threatening to flow. She could actually feel the principles of an entire lifetime leaving her as she spoke. It was if she was speaking some dark incantation and damning her soul to hell.

Sue opened her eyes and looked out over the corpses.

"Just don't get in our way." She warned.

For the next few months Sue took herself and Jan on a zigzag pattern across what had been the Eastern and Mid-Western United States. Avoiding people was easier than she thought. More often she and Jan encountered old battlefields and burnt out towns than anything else. Sue would oven settle them invisibly on or behind a train so they could move faster. The railroads were still moving but the machinery was starting to degrade. Sue wondered how long it would be before the steam locomotive returned to service. She always made sure to get off long before they reached a city and even avoided some of the larger stations. From the chatter the scanner picked up Sue guessed that the Sentinels monitored stations, not the tracks themselves. Along the way she picked up other newspapers and different newscasts.

Gradually a picture formed in Sue's mind. Without the Avengers, the Fantastic Four or the other super groups to oppose them the criminal syndicates, seeing the U.S. on the edge of ruin anyway, tried to carve out individual kingdoms. From the type of chatter Sue picked up on her scanner and from the programs she listened too on the bikes radio, some had succeeded. Hydra and Aim were still actually at war over in Montana while the Maggia held firm in Louisiana. The Taskmaster ruled Las Vegas, but how he avoided classification as mutant was a mystery to Sue. California was ruled by the Shroud, New York state by the Kingpin. Other than that individual governors ruled each state. The Sentinels simply didn't care what form of government existed as long as their rules were followed.

When the railroads became too risky Sue and Jan took to the back roads. They traveled by day, keeping invisible and using the bike to coast down roads. Gas was very rare and Sue wanted to save what they had in case she needed it. They ate well enough to put weight and strength back onto their bodies. Sue quickly perfected the art of robbery. Farm houses were her first choice, but raider gangs as well. When she hit raider gangs Sue left no survivors. She also took care not to kill with her powers unless she needed too. The best way she found was to use a knife and simply kill the sentry, then kill everyone else while they slept. When Sue robbed family farms she did so quietly and was not seen. Deep down she was grateful for that, despite her feelings Sue didn't know if she could actually kill whole families. She and Jan did head the in the opposite direction if she saw any sign of raiders attacking a house, farm or village. Jan complained about that some times but Sue just turned them away and moved as fast as she could.

She and Jan listened to the radio at night and often the airwaves were full of anti-mutant hate. The X-men were the true villains of the age, at least according to the commentators. But the Avengers and the FF were not spared. Histories were broadcast of the Avengers and the FF, distorted lies that painted both groups as tyrannical overlords. Songs about the Day were common, and in all cases they celebrated the Sentinel's actions. After a while Sue learned to make sure Jan was asleep before she listened to the radio. It was the only way to stop her friend from having nightmares. Sue scanned night after night for any underground or resistance radio, any station that might come even close to the truth. She found none.

From time to time Sue did find snippets of information that were useful. Old newspapers in abandoned houses yielded history. The Sentinels had executed the President. Sue read with ironic amusement how Sentinels had destroyed the White House, despite it being defended by Grey's. The President had decided that the robots were going too far and when they ignored his orders and declared him a mutant sympathizer he had called for the: "the men and women of this great country to rise up and fight back against the inhuman products of our science."

No one had helped him or the Greys that day and Sue had to laugh at the end of the story. It was no surprise that the vice-president was sworn into office the next day and pledged to continue the fight against the mutant menace.

International news was different. The Black Widow now ruled Russia as a queen; the Middle East was a gigantic radioactive zone. The Israeli's and the Arab's had finally settled things once and for all with mutual destruction. Ninety-nine percent of China's population had been wiped out by a genetically engineered virus, the Chinese governments own answer to the mutant problem. The virus had mutated, something Sue found horribly ironic, and had only been stopped when it ran into a counter-virus released by the Mandarin. He now ruled what was left of the country as well as India and Pakistan. Africa was not ruled by anyone as far as Sue could tell. There were no organized governments left on the continent.

Europe at least, as far as Sue could tell, was ruled by the old countries; France, Germany, Italy, Spain, all of who had signed treaties allowing the Sentinels anti-mutant programs to function. Humanity had been separated into three categories. H for Human, allowed to breed, A for Anomalous, Forbidden to breed, and M for Mutant. Anyone classified as M were either killed, given to the Sentinels for experimentation and sterilization, or interned by their own governments in special camps under Sentinel supervision. If they had any powers at all they were killed instantly.

Only England, Ireland and Scotland stood against it all. Surrounded by a force field the island had completely cut itself off from the world. No one was sure who was ruling it, but no force was able to get through the force field. One newspaper account describe how a fishing boat wandered out of the range of the force field, made its catch and then moved back in. A Sentinel robot had been holding onto the ship and it simply vanished inside with the ship. Nothing was ever heard of the robot again.

Though the papers revealed what had happened none of them were more recent than 2007. It was 2014 and Sue wondered what had happened since. The radio rarely gave a national much less an international report. It seemed the world had gotten larger and few were interested in hearing about it anymore. Sue wondered if curiosity had become a crime.

They were somewhere in Nevada when Sue and Jan finally met with another set of New York survivors of the Day. Sue and Jan were moving down a highway, visible and with the engine on. Sue had picked up more gas from a raider camp and had decided it would be better to travel openly for a while. Nevada had become a biker state run by the TaskMaster and the Hells Angels. By that time Sue and Jan had let their hair grow long and both had found jeans and leather jackets. Jan's stump was stuffed into a boot filled with padding and strapped halfway up her leg under her pants. She could pass for normal from a distance. She could even walk a bit, but that was painful without a cane. Sue had found them helmets and boiled the head lice out of them. They looked like any other bikers on the road.

Even so Sue mostly kept to deserted roads. If she saw anyone coming she would signal Jan who would keep one hand on her gun. Jan still had the mind of a child, but that child had learned to kill.

It was just past sun up, and a glint of light on the western horizon caught Sue's eye. She slowed the bike and watched it. Planes were very rare in the skies, but Sentinel robots did not shine in the light. She slowed the bike to a stop and she and Jan watched as the plane sank toward the ground. It was smoking and Sue could see other glints of light around it. Taking out the binoculars Sue focused on the distance.

"We hide?" Jan asked. One of the basic rules Sue had drummed into her was that in case of trouble Jan and Sue would hide or run. It didn't matter whether that trouble was a fire, flood, battle between armies or even two raider gangs fighting it out. Run or hide was their only options.

Sue's sharp intake of air told Jan that this was something new.

"Take a look." Sue said passing Jan the binoculars.

An Avengers Quinjet was a compact wide-bodied supersonic jet. Based on a design from Reed and modified somewhat by Tony Stark, the jet was considered a very advanced flying machine. Sue had never expected to see one again. But in the distance the large glint was a Quinjet, with the stylized "A" on the tail fin.

"We help?" Jan asked.

Sue bit her lip. It could be a trap. As far as she knew no Avengers were alive besides Jan. But then Sue was listed as dead in some places. Could some Avengers have survived? Sue took the binoculars back and focused on the attacking aircraft. They were small and black, no markings. That was not Sentinel tech.

"We investigate." Sue said, putting the binoculars away. "Carefully."

An hour later they stopped behind the wreck of a school bus and watched. Sue had cut the engine on the bike and had been keeping them invisible for the past half an hour. Now she and Jan left the bike and looked around the side of the bus. The Quinjet had come to rest in the desert. It wasn't badly damaged and from the looks of things who ever had been flying it had put up a ground fight. They had lost. The four ships that had been attacking were on the ground, one of them a smoking wreck. By the downed quinjet two women were being gang raped.

"We help!" Jan snarled as she started pulling her clothes off. She had learned once again to use her bio-elctric Wasp stings but still had to go into battle nude.

"We wait." Sue said stopping her.

"But..."

"We wait." Sue said firmly. "Jan count."

"Count?"

"Count the bad men Jan."

Jan looked around the bus and started to count. She could only go up to ten before loosing track, but the message sank in.

"We wait." She agreed. "But the girls..."

"Are on their own." Sue said and then added: "For now."

Sue looked around the bus again. The men were dressed in black combat suits with a red skull on the chest. There were 30 of them, well armed and from the looks of them well trained.

"Jan strip." Sue said. "We'll look, but Jan stays on Sue's shoulder and does nothing, says nothing. Understand?"

"Jan understands." Jan said and started to pull off her clothes.

The man in charge was tall, blond and every inch the Prussian officer. He was about fifty with stern hazel eyes and a strong jaw. His nose looked like it had been broken and badly set more than once, making his bearing even sterner. He was talking to field video link. Sue stayed quiet and watched over his shoulder. On the screen the Red Skull stood in a torture room. In one hand was a whip. Behind him was a man on a rack.

_After all the heroes have gone Earth will belong to the cockroaches_, Sue thought bitterly. _The Skull is no mutant; he has no powers, so the Sentinels left him alone and killed Captain America._

"We have quelled the resistance." The officer was saying. "Our stealth units have been successful in masking us from Sentinel detection, but we don't know how long they will be effective. We have the women, the children and the old man."

"Bring them all to me alive." the Red Skull said. "Your men may have your fun with the women, but not the children or the old man."

He paused to crack the whip against the man on the rack and Sue started as she heard the man scream. She knew that voice.

A young soldier hurried over to the commander. Sue doubted he was much older than sixteen or seventeen. He carried a large package and his face was red with excitement. He stopped and saluted, the Nazi salute turned Sue's stomach, handed it too the commander and then left. The package was about the size of an artist portfolio. The commander opened it and smiled.

"There is more my leader." He said smiling. "I will also bring you this gift."

Captain America's shield glinted in the sunlight. Sue felt Jan's wings start to move and reached up and took hold of her friends legs. The shield was indestructible, painted with circular red and white stripes with a large white star on a blue background in its center. 

"Excellent." the Skull said. "What of the quinjet?"

"Repairable." The commander said. "We shall lift off within the hour."

"Proceed directly here." The Red Skull said. "A great reward will be waiting for you."

The commander cut the link and then turned to start shouting orders. By that time Sue and Jan were heading out of the compound back toward the bike.

"We help." Jan insisted. "Kill them!"

"Calm down Jan." Sue said as they took cover behind the bus. She took hold of Jan's legs and held her friend. Sue took a few deep breaths to calm her own anger.

"We'll help and we'll kill Jan, but we'll do it the right way. Remember, we're all that's left." Sue started to go through their belongings, picking and choosing what to keep and what to leave. When she was done she sat down to watch.

"But..."

"Jan." Sue said firmly. "We are the last Jan. If we fail, it's the camp again. No one will come to rescue us."

"Jan understand." the Wasp said, turning pale at the memories that word inspired.

The commander was very good at his estimates. While Sue and Jan watched men climbed all over the quinjet, repairing and refueling it. They were young, but they were well trained and motivated. And they were all American.

While they did the repairs on the outside screams came from inside of the jet. The men working to repair the quinjet laughed and made crude jokes as they heard the screams. Jan's wings fluttered once or twice but Sue kept a firm hold on her legs. This was their chance and Sue wasn't going to loose that chance for someone she had never met. Who ever it was in the quinjet would just have to be satisfied with vengeance.

They snuck on board just as the quinjet was being moved into position for takeoff. The inside of a quinjet was 15 feet long and ten feet high. Three rows of three chairs were in the back, in the front were a pilot, co-pilot and navigator seats. A nude woman was strapped into one of seats in the front row. She had been one of the victims of the rapes and for a moment Sue's heart faltered. Then she sealed off the part of her that could feel sympathy. The woman had long red hair, a face that was still young enough to be striking and a slim figure. She was cut and bruised and the remains of the rape were still drying on her skin. Beside her was a nude teenager. Sue recognized her, though the last time she had seen her the girl had been no more than four. She had Wanda's red hair, but Steve's strong jaw and his blue eyes. Her body was still young enough to be growing. The young woman had freckles, long arms and slightly big hands, large breasts and skinny legs. In a few years she would be beautiful, but first nature was cursing her with an awkward phase. She too had been been raped.

_I'm sorry Steve,_ Sue thought. The apology felt like wet sand in her mind. _Please forgive me Wanda, but there was nothing I could have done to save your daughter._

Rebecca Janet Rodgers sat quietly, awake and aware. She was in shock, Sue realized. This was the first time Rebecca had been raped. Sue could tell that from the way the teen ignored the pain and the bruises. In fact Rebecca looked like she was trying to ignore the world.

In the next row were two unconscious children. The boy was wearing a T-shirt that said; "Ben" and the girl was wearing a T-shirt that said; "May". They were wearing jeans as well. They both had red hair and obviously belonged to the older woman. The boy had a stronger jaw than the girl, but she had a more serious look to her face, even in sleep. Sue hoped that they hadn't seen what had happened to their mother.

In the next row was Jarvis, the Avengers butler. Sue was astonished to see him alive. The years had not been kind to him. He was bent, with one blind eye, a scar on his bald head, a scraggily beard and twisted foot. He was dressed in worn clothing.

Sue put her belongings down beside a storage locker and sat down on the floor.

They took off, two men flying the craft, two men watching the prisoners. One of the men playfully fondled Rebecca's breasts. Rebecca cringed and whimpered slightly, causing him to laugh and pinch her nipple.

_Where do such men come from, _Sue wondered. He was tall, well built, good looking. Sue would never understand why such men turned to rape. But then she never understood why men would serve the Red Skull. Over the past decade Sue had come to realize she had never understood the rest of humanity at all. She held on to Jan's legs and contented herself with the knowledge that the man would not live through the flight.

An alarm sounded five minutes after they were airborne.

"Sentinels!" the commander swore.

Sue's blood turned cold at the name.

"Ten sentinels." the co-pilot said. "Stealth is ineffective."

"Order the others to turn back and engage." The commander said as he banked the craft to the right.

The co-pilot relayed the orders and Sue edged up closer to see the instruments. They had been flying south, now they were heading southwest.

"They will not be able to defeat the robots," the co-pilot said.

"They will give us time." The commander said coldly. "Can you operate the missiles on this craft?"

"Yes sir."

"Bring them online." The commander flipped a switch and a holographic map of Nevada appeared. The quinjet was represented as a green blip, ahead of them was the city of Las Vegas. He pointed his finger at a point a little bit on the other side of the city. "This is the fusion reactor that powers the city. Hit it with every missile we have as we fly toward it. The radiation will hide us from the Sentinels and we will head west at top speed."

"That will destroy the city." the co-pilot remarked.

"Them or us." The commander shrugged.

Sue kept a tight grip on Jan as her friend tried to fly away and attack.

"Sue!" Jan hissed into her ear as they got closer and closer to the city. Sue squeezed her friend's legs tighter.

"Our fighters are destroyed." The co-pilot reported a few minutes later. "Three Sentinel robots still in pursuit. Missiles are targeted. We will fire in 4 minutes."

"How soon will the Sentinels reach us?"

"Six minutes."

"Good." The commander paused then went on. "I shall miss the city, it was a fun place for a man who knew what he wanted."

"I was there last month." the co-pilot said. "There is a woman I shall miss, she could do incredible things with her..."

A buzzing sound on the panel got his attention and he flipped a switch.

"We are being warned away." The co-pilot said, listening to some unknown ground controller. "The fusion plants defenses are being activated. They may destroy the missiles."

"Reducing altitude." The commander said. "Let us see if they can hit something that is only a few meters above the ground. Use the quinjets particle beam weapons, fire into the city. A few hotspots may distract the fusion plants defenses."

"Yes sir."

"Let JAN GO!" Jan cried in Sue's ear, her voice nearly hysterical. Sue kept hold of her.

_Payback, _Sue thought savagely. _Chew on this Julia. _She pulled Jan off of her shoulder and hugged the Wasp to her chest. _This is our best chance Jan. If they escape, we escape, but if they get caught we get caught. Remember the camp? Remember New York? Remember the Day!_

Jan was crying and beating at Sue's chest with tiny fist. She could use her Wasp sting to get away, but they both knew she wouldn't do that. Luckily the tension in the cabin was to thick for the guards to notice the slight sound.

"We have our hotspots." the co-pilot reported. "Three buildings on fire."

_Fire, they killed Johny with fire. They hit him with modified napalm and forced him to nova, then they hit him again and again until he burned to death. People cheered. A building was pushed over onto Reed and a crowd of Greys hacked him to pieces with swords while he was trapped._

"One minute to firing." the co-pilot said coolly.

It was the tone of his voice that got to Sue. The calm, matter of fact way he spoke. Her eyes rested on Captain America's shield. Within her soul that small part of her that survived the rapes, the torture and the betrayal against the part of her that tried not to care. Two movies played themselves endlessly in her mind, one showed innocent people, children, running and dying, the other showed those same people laughing as they collected pieces of Reed's body for souvenirs.

"Forty five seconds." the co-pilot said. "Sentinels are 1 minute 30 seconds from intercept."

Sue didn't remember screaming. Later everyone said she screamed but she couldn't remember it. Everything happened in a slow blur of emotion to her.

She dropped her invisibility and at the same time let Jan go. Even as she was doing that Sue struck out with four invisible sheets, decapitating the Red Skull's men. Blood sprayed everywhere as the headless bodies twitched and jerked in their death dances. The faces on the heads displayed astonishment as the brains within them died.

Leaping into the pilot's seat Sue aborted the missile launch and kicked in the after burners. The quinjet lurched forward and Sue shot over the fusion plant with the force of a sonic-boom trailing in her wake. The instant she passed over the fusion plant she turned the quinjet invisible and pulled the sick back hard. The turn nearly lost Sue the control of the jet but she hung on. They were in a long loop and warning lights were going on all over the panel. Sue ignored them and held on. The loop crested and the quinjet started down again. The tactic had worked. The Sentinel robots were a mile away from the fusion plant, scanning the horizon in front of them. They became aware of the quinjet behind them a few moments too late. Sue launched the missiles, destroying them and then headed the quinjet south-west. She poured on the speed as the craft zipped over the rest of the country at roughly 80 feet of altitude. Sue kept the quinjet that close even as they went over the mountains and through canyons. She hoped that the sonic booms would play havoc with just about every instrument that could have tracked them.

It only took them fifteen minutes to reach the coast and only when they were fifty miles out did Sue ease up on the throttle. She climbed, slowing at the same time to let the heat trail from the engines fade. Then she cut the engines, banked left and glided until she was only 40 feet above the waves. The Engines came on at low power and Sue set them on a very slow course south-west. She took a deep breath and looked back. Shocked faces and a blood-splattered cabin greeted her. Shocked faces and one grateful face. A normal sized Jan smiled at her and Sue gave her a small smile back.

_That was stupid, _Sue thought. _We'll pay for it someday. At least I hope it will be someday. There won't be any gratitude. No parade. If we went back they'd haul us out and hang us. I was stupid, but I can live with stupidity I guess. But why do I have to keep saving people who hate me?_

"Miss Janet." Jarvis said, his voice still the cultured English that Sue remembered. Sue looked at the instruments and checked on the fuel. They still a half tank. A quick mental calculation told her that it was enough, with luck. Sue called up the navigational computer and started to set a course.

"Mrs. Richards?" said the woman with the straight red hair. She had come up beside Sue. "I thought you were dead."

"I wasn't that lucky." Sue said turning around. Sue smiled at her and the woman recoiled at the scar on her face. Sue pushed the reaction aside and turned back to the controls. She set the auto-pilot to follow the course and then stood up. Only then did Sue realize she had been sitting on the dead commanders body since she had taken control of the jet. She was covered in his blood.

"This is MJ." the Wasp said flying over to them.

"Mary Jane Parker." the woman said. "Thank you. Thank you for saving us. She looked at the dead bodies. "Can we clean this up a bit before my children wake up?"

"And perhaps find some clothing for the ladies?" Jarvis asked standing up. He was trying not to look at the three naked women.

The request struck Sue as silly. Then she realized that Jarvis and Mary Jane were serious.

_They've been leading a civilized life,_ Sue thought. _My god! I didn't think anyone still could._

"Their all dead." Rebecca said walking slowly up to the front of the cabin. She looked at Sue and flinched at the scar on her face. "You killed them."

"Yes." Sue said. "I did."

Turning to the controls Sue pressed a few switches and the holographic display showed the water under the quinjet.

"Water is clear, we can dump the bodies."

"This thing can scan under the water?" Mary Jane asked.

"When you deal with Atlantis it's a good idea." Sue said.

"You're from Atlantis?" Rebecca asked still in shock.

"No." Sue said. She operated a switch and the quinjet settled closer to the water. "I've got some shirts you can use while we clean up."

While they cleaned up the blood and disposed of the bodies Sue told Mary, Rebecca and Jarvis what had happened to her and Jan. The shock and horror on their faces hit Sue harder than she thought it would. She could see pity as well. Sue ran through it all in a calm but hard voice. Jan added comments occasionally and the way they looked at her was even worse. Jan seemed to sense it as well and after a time shrank, curled up between the sleeping children and went to sleep herself. Sue wanted to shout at them, to tell them that Jan was still Jan, even if she did have the mind of a child.

But they remembered the Jan before the Day. The strong, perky woman who still held the record for the most costumes worn by one heroine. The woman who had led the Avengers into battle more than once. Sue still remembered that Jan as well, but she had gotten used to the new Jan and did not think less of her. Jarvis and Mary Jane could not hide their reactions, and Rebecca was even worse. Sue decided to let it go and continued their story.

The hardest part, as Sue knew it would be, came when Mary Jane and Rebecca realized when Sue had found them.

"You didn't do anything?" Mary Jane demanded? "They were raping us!"

"Why didn't you stop them?" Rebecca shouted.

"Look at me!" Sue screamed so harshly that both women stepped back. Sue looked both of them in the eyes. "Look at me." She said more softly. "There were 30 of them. Well armed, well trained. Jan and I wouldn't have stood a chance."

"But..." Rebecca started to protest and then trailed off.

"Rebecca the day we could charge in against impossible odds and win is over. If I had tried and failed it would have meant back to the camps for Jan and I. I wasn't going to take that chance." She looked at both of them almost pleading for understanding. "I know what you went through, I went through it for 12 years! 12 YEARS!" Sue shouted. "I'm sorry but I won't chance going through that again. Your safe now, that's the best I could do."

After that they cleaned in silence. Jarvis produced some mechanics coveralls from a storage locker. He moved slowly, both from injuries and age, but the same dignity that he had always had was still there. After he handed them the clothes he went up to the front of the cabin and sat in the front row.

"We can take a swim to get cleaned up." Sue said, again checking the scanner. She set the quinjet to be stationary. "No more than five minutes."

Sue stripped as she walked toward the hatch. She had just reached it when she heard a collective gasp. Sue whirled, expecting to see an enemy.

"What?" Sue demanded.

"Your... your... body..." Mary Jane said.

"The scars..." Rebecca echoed.

Jarvis turned pale and looked away, but Mary Jane and Rebecca just stared at her. Sue saw understanding on their faces at last.

"You don't go through life without picking up a few scars." Sue said, then she dove out of the jet and into the water.

Hours later the children were still asleep, as were Jan and Jarvis. Mary Jane sat in the co-pilots seat and Rebecca stood behind her. Sue sat in the pilot's seat and kept an eye on the scanners. They were all wearing orange mechanics coveralls. Sue was shocked to learn that Mary Jane had been married to Spiderman and that the children were his. Spiderman had never seemed like the type to settle down and marry.

"The Day caught us off guard." Mary Jane said. "It'd been getting harder for Peter, he couldn't swing across town anymore without getting jeered at. But we never dreamed what was coming."

"None of us did." Sue said.

"He figured it out after the Sentinels killed Daredevil." Mary Jane said. "We got home and pulled the kids out of day care, we were going to head toward the Baxter Building but by then the riots had started and cut us off. We made it to Avengers mansion. The defenses held the Sentinels and the Greys off for most of the day. The Avengers called for help."

"And the SHIELD helicarrier showed up." Sue said in a tone of voice bitter enough to shatter glass.

"We thought they had come to help too, but suddenly all our defenses went down. Reed had been designing stuff for SHIELD for years. While he was doing that they slipped a virus into the main computer."

"The mansion was being over run." Mary Jane said. She put her arm on Rebecca's shoulder. "Captain America and the Scarlet Witch got impaled by the same spear."

"Dad gave me his shield just when he died." Rebecca said. That she saw it at only four or five and could still talk about it told Sue a lot about Rebecca. "He and mom tried to say something... but I never heard it. They died too quick."

They were quiet for a few minutes after that.

The Grey's and the administrations greatest problem with the super hero community was Captain America. Others could be smeared, but not Cap. The press respected him; the public loved and admired him. When he spoke out against the anti-mutant campaign they were at a loss.

Until he married the Scarlet Witch. Then they started to report that he was being mind controlled. Bewitched. When photo's surfaced of Wanda in bed with both the Vision and Wonderman it caused a rift in their marriage. It took months for Steve and Wanda to reconcile, and to find out that the Vision, Wanda and WonderMan had been under the control of the Red Skull. A year after that they had Rebecca. But the scandal worked, diverting enough attention away from Steve's message about how dangerous the anti-mutant move was. When Rebecca had been born, a normal human, the Grey's had actually launched a court action to take her away from Steve and Wanda. Only a slim decision by the Supreme Court had stopped it from happening. Sue remembered that at the time Steve took it as proof the system could work.

"When the SHIELD helicarier blasted the mansion Peter managed to get us out by the sewer. The Grey's were waiting for us, but Peter fought through them. He got us to Doctor Strange's house in Greenwitch Village. The Grey's and the Sentinels were close behind us." Mary Jane's voice choked for a moment. "Peter told us to get going, then jumped into them to give us time. I saw a Sentinel stun him and the crowd closed in..."

"It all came down to numbers that day." Sue said. "It was like a human tide washing over us."

"We were safe for a day in Doctor Strange's house." Mary Jane said. "The Sentinels and the helicarier couldn't get past his magic. But the Grey's had some sort of charm that broke the shield. Doctor Strange conjured up some mystic portal and sent us to an Avengers safe house outside of Las Vegas. He was going to follow but... I didn't even know the Avenger's had safe houses."

"They built them after Rebecca was born." Sue said. "Just in case."

"Yea." Rebecca said bitterly. "It's not like I could ever have defended myself. I proved that today."

"Rebecca..." Mary Jane started.

"No Aunt Mary!" Rebecca said, starting to cry. "I'm useless! My mom could shake up mountains, my dad was the best... look at me, I... I'm... human."

She broke down crying and Mary Jane joined her. They hugged each other and Sue let them cry while she checked the instruments. They were still on course, and both night and a weather front were moving in.

"You're not useless." Mary Jane insisted as the crying slowly stopped.

"No, I got boobs." Rebecca said. "As long as I got them I can get through life."

"Don't be an idiot!" Sue snapped. "Mary Jane is right. I had all the power you don't and I couldn't save myself either."

"But I never had any power." Rebecca protested. "I'm never good at anything."

"Your only 17." Mary Jane said.

"The only thing that limits a person is that person." Sue said. "Your father said that and he was right."

"He failed." Rebecca said sullenly.

"We all did." Sue said.

"The Grey's and the government spent years building up the hate." Mary Jane said. "I couldn't believe the people who went along with them."

"National security." Sue said. "It was their mantra. It convinced people like Nick Fury. That really was the beginning of the end. But we didn't see it."

"But my mother and father were super heroes!" Rebecca protested. "They were legends! I couldn't even... I couldn't even shoot the guys who were raping us." She looked at Mary Jane and looked ready to cry again. "I couldn't shoot, I tried but I couldn't pull the trigger. I'm sorry."

"Your father would be proud of you." Sue said. "Even at the worst he never killed."

"You killed." Rebecca said.

"Jan and I were six years in the camp before I killed anyone." Sue said. "I killed the man who used a club to pound nails into her skull." Sue fingered the scar on her face. "I killed him after he gave me this. But before that I spent six years being raped and beaten. Even now I'd rather run than fight or kill. Some people never can kill, I never thought I could. It's not fun Rebecca. Each time I kill I feel a bit of my soul twist itself into a knot and drag me a little further into hell."

"I just felt so..."

"I know." Sue said. "But you're not useless, your not just a pair of breasts, you're just like the rest of us, a good person thrown into a nightmare. Don't beat yourself up for being a good person."

Rebecca sank into the navigator's chair and was silent. Sue turned to Mary Jane.

"How did you manage to hide out all these years?"

"We hid out for a few months." Mary Jane said. "There was enough food to last that long. We sat and watched the country collapse. When the food ran out I had to shop. I wasn't sure what we were going to do. Then the TaskMaster took over Las Vegas. He showed up at the safe house one day. He knew who I was, who we all were. Someone spotted me in the market."

"What did he want?"

"Me." Mary Jane said. "The wife of Spiderman. It gave him a pretty good boost in esteem when he showed me off as his. Then loaned me out." Mary Jane sighed. "I guess there's not a lot of difference between a model and a prostitute after all."

"Yes there is." Sue said. "You didn't have much of a choice."

"Not really." Mary Jane agreed. "It worked for a while, even when I wasn't such a big deal anymore. He let me work as a stripper to keep us in food."

"He was just waiting for me to grow up." Rebecca said. "Once I got boobs he wanted to start to shop me around. I didn't go for it; he didn't press me on it. I could never figure out why."

"He had other things to deal with." Mary Jane said. "Up until a few months ago he was fighting off a territorial challenge from the Shroud. It was after he got a treaty done and things settled down that he remembered you. Then he made a deal with the Red Skull to let the Skull's men have R&R in Vegas. Somehow the Red Skull learned that the Daughter of Captain America was in Las Vegas."

"He sold me." Rebecca said bitterly.

"He sold us all." Mary Jane said. "I got a tip a few hours before the Skull's men got to our place. Enough time to get the kids and try to get away in the Quinjet. But they caught us."

"What now?" Rebecca said after a few minutes of silence. "Where are we going?"

"A week before the Day the Fantastic Four discovered a Kree maintenance and supply base in Antarctica." Sue said. "It looked like they had pulled out because of a Skrull infiltration. There were two ships in the drydock. We were going to go back so Reed could spend some time studying the technology..." Sue sighed. "Reed used to love to do that."

"At any rate," Sue continued drawing away from Mary Jane's hand as she started to reach out to her, "if the place is still there the ships will still be there. There are a lot of worlds out there where the name of the Fantastic Four is still honored."

"You're going to leave the planet?" Rebecca asked.

"As fast as I can." Sue said. "You are all welcome to come if you want."

"Leave Earth?" Mary Jane repeated.

"What is there for us here?" Sue asked. "How long before May and Ben are scoped out by Sentinels? Rebecca how long before the Red Skull finds you again? Come with Jan and I. It may not be safe, but it might be safer."

"But... Leave Earth?" Rebecca asked. "Shouldn't we try to stop the Sentinels or something?"

"How?" Sue asked. "More importantly why?"

"What?"

"Mary Jane you were in New York for the Day. Do you really think there is anything worth saving? Anybody? Did anyone try to help your family?"

Mary Jane leaned back in her chair and slowly shook her head.

"Humanity's made its choice." Sue said coldly. "They wanted the Sentinels, they've got the Sentinels. There is no reason for you or me or anyone else to pull them back off of the edge of the cliff. If we do they'll just toss US off instead."

"So... we just leave? Just like that?" Rebecca asked.

"That's what I plan to do." Sue said turning back to the controls. "As fast as I can. Jan is coming with me. You can make up your own mind."

They flew on in silence after that. Sue kept her eyes on the controls, but she could feel Mary Jane's and Rebecca's on her.

__

They think I'm abandoning Earth. Sue thought. _Well maybe I am. They've had a hard time of it, but it's paradise compared to what Jan and I went through. I hope they come with us, but there is no way in hell I'm staying on this planet with the Sentinels in charge and no way in hell I'm going to fight them again. I'd loose._

The children woke up crying and Mary Jane and Rebecca went to them, leaving Sue alone at the controls.

... To be continued.


	2. Chapter 2

End of Hope

Chapter 2

The quinjet shuddered as it moved slowly through high winds and snow. Sue kept both hands on the control wheel as she guided the aircraft through the storm. Beside her in the co-pilots seat was Mary Jane Parker. Huddled on her lap was a very frightened little girl.

"Can't we go above this?" Mary Jane shouted as the quinjet lurched down and then back up. Electricity crackled in the quinjet as the energy of the storm leaked through the hull, causing Mary Jane's long red hair to leap wildly around her head.

"No way!" Sue shouted back, her shorter white tinged blonde hair reacting the same way. "If the Sentinels or anyone else are looking through a satellite we'd show up like a flare. This storm is the best thing we have going."

The quinjet seemed to flip completely upside-down and lift itself higher into the air. May and Ben screamed and Sue could tell that Rebecca and Mary Jane wanted to join them.

"Hang on!" Sue shouted as she brought the aircraft under control and took it back down near the ground. The frozen waste of Antarctica looked like the surface of a sugar bowl. But the white peaks and valleys that came ever closer to the aircraft were not powder. They were deadly shards of ice and rock that were frozen solid, and that would tear the jet apart if Sue even brushed against them. Not that Sue was looking out the window; she was looking at the instruments, counting on them to tell her where they were and how high up they were.

"We got a choice?" Rebecca called from the navigator's chair. Hugging onto her for dear life was Ben. "How long till we get there?"

"Another five minutes!" Sue shouted as the ship rocked again. "I've got to go lower."

"Lower?" Mary Jane shouted.

Suddenly the buffeting subsided and the quinjet seemed to level off. There was a shocked silence in the cabin broken only by the sobs of May and Ben and the sounds of the engines.

"What happened?" Mary Jane asked.

"I've surrounded us with an invisible force field." Sue said. In the unsympathetic light given off by the cockpit instruments her skin took on a harsh yellow hue. "I need us stable if I'm going to get us into the base in one piece."

"Couldn't you have done that all along?" Rebecca demanded.

"Not and stay awake." Sue said gritting her teeth. The move caused the scar on the side of her face to stand out against her skin.

"Oh." Rebecca drew back a bit. She was still growing, with curly hair that was a darker shade than Mary Jane's and a body that would be as voluptuous as her mother's had been, but that would be in a few more years. For the moment Rebecca was a tall young woman with large breasts, long arms and legs and big hands. To top it all off she still had freckles. She, Sue and Mary Jane were wearing orange jumpsuits.

"Sorry."

"It's ok." Sue said.

"You can feel your force fields?" Mary Jane asked.

"When they get hit hard enough." Sue said. "It feels like a heavy duty headache."

"Ouch." Rebecca said.

"Where are we going mommy?" The girl in Mary Jane's arms asked.

"Someplace safe May." Mary Jane said trying to keep her calm. May Parker was her mother in miniature, but for her deep blue eyes. She wore her bright red hair bobbed short.

_Maybe, maybe not,_ Sue thought. _It was safe 13 years ago, who knows what the place is like now._

Sue looked at the fuel gage and realized that it wouldn't matter if it was safe or not, they only had another 2 hours of fuel left. They were on the outer edge of an Antarctican mountain range, five to ten hours from the tip of South America. If the Kree base wasn't there they were in serious trouble.

_I wish I remembered what it felt like to be safe._

"What about school?" May asked.

"You're not going back to school." Mary Jane said. "Not that school anyway."

"But I liked school." May protested.

"Is this like that day you always told us would come?" Ben asked. Older than his sister Ben's red hair was both darker and shorter, and his eyes were a bright green. He topped May by a half foot.

"Yes Ben this is it."

"Day?" Sue asked, wondering if Mary Jane had told her children about the Day in New York when the Sentinels had started their take over.

"Mommy said that one day robots would come after us." May said. "That we'd have to run."

"But she never said where too." Ben added.

"I knew the TaskMaster wouldn't protect us forever." Mary Jane said. "I never told them where because I couldn't think of anywhere to go."

"Welcome to anywhere." Sue said as the quinjet headed toward a cleft in the rocks.

It was a tight fit, with no more than five feet on either side of the passage. The winds dropped as they entered it and Sue was able to ease off her force field. She switched on the quinjet's lights and they illuminated a cave that went far into the mountain.

"What is this place?" May asked.

"A Kree base." Sue said. "Do you know who the Kree are?"

"Aliens." Ben said.

"Right." Sue said. She smiled at him but he flinched at the sight of her scarred face.

"Mary Jane I need Jan up here."

"Ok." Mary Jane said. She got up, putting May down. Then went to the seats where the Wasp was asleep next to Jarvis.

"Why were the Kree here?" May asked.

"Years ago the Kree and another group of aliens; The Skrulls, were having a tug of war over the planet." Sue said, carefully keeping her face in a shadow. "Earth is located between the Kree and Skrull empires. The Kree set up a base to spy on Earth and the Skrulls had the same idea."

"What happened to them?" Rebecca asked.

"They had the same idea in the same place." Sue said. "We don't know the whole story, but when the Fantastic Four found this place it looked like they all killed each other."

"Are we going to see alien bodies?" Ben asked, excitement and revulsion competing in his voice.

"No." Sue said. "We buried them.

"Oh." Ben said, and this time relief and disappointment were evident.

This time Sue didn't smile at him, but she did smile.

"The Kree left two ships behind, both in dry dock. If we can fix them we can leave."

"Are going into outerspace mommy?" May asked as Mary Jane and Jan walked back up to the cabin. Mary Jane supported a naked Jan causing Ben's eyes to go wide. Janet Van Dyne was taller than he was by a foot, her body wasn't as scared as Sue's, but she only had one foot. Her breasts jiggled by Ben at his eye level as she passed him.

"Maybe." Mary Jane said.

"Sit down Jan, I need you at the repulser guns in case the Kree defenses become active."

"Right-oh." Jan said hopping into the co-pilots seat. With a practiced ease that astounded everyone but Sue Jan flipped switches and took hold of a gun stick that rose out of the control console.

"Ben, May go strap yourselves in." Mary Jane said.

"Ok." May said.

"But..."

"Now young man." Mary Jane said sternly.

His eyes never leaving Jan's body Ben went back and took a seat beside his sister.

"We've got to find you some clothes." Mary Jane whispered to Jan. Jan's own clothes and the boot that had padding allowing her to walk had been soaked in blood and Sue had thrown them out with the bodies, forbidding Mary Jane or Jarvis from trying to wash them.

"You'll never get the blood out." Sue had said. "And Jan's not wearing blood stained clothing ever again if I can help it."

They hadn't pressed at the tone in her voice and since at the time Jan was only a few inches tall and asleep it hadn't seemed like a problem.

"Anything but grey." Jan said. "I don't look good in grey."

Mary Jane nodded and a part of Sue felt sympathy for her. It was bad enough her children had just been torn out of a home, terrified by things they couldn't understand, Jan's nudity was no doubt skyrocketing her son's hormones.

_It may not matter when she's only a few inches tall, _Sue thought. _But when she's full sized Jan's still beautiful._

Sue could feel the scar on her face as the thought came into her mind. Ruthlessly she crushed it and set the quinjets radio to a specific frequency.

"What are we waiting for?" Rebecca asked.

"I have to set the radio to the right frequency and modulation." Sue explained. "Then I can give the password. Otherwise those beams up ahead will trigger and set off the alarms."

"What beams?" Mary Jane asked.

"Just a sec." Sue said. She concentrated and in the cavern in front of the quinjet a thousand beams of light became visible. Spaced no more than an inch apart they formed a solid wall.

"Shock!" Rebecca whispered.

"A sparrow couldn't get through those." Mary Jane said.

"It was designed to keep Skrulls out." Sue said, letting the effect drop. She took a deep breath and the quinjet shuddered.

"Are you alright?" Mary Jane asked.

"The wind in the cavern is still pretty strong." Sue said in a voice that told everyone she was exhausted. My force field slipped for a second. I'll be fine."

Suddenly the radio speaker burst out with harsh language that sounded like speeded up German. Sue answered back in the same language. After a pause a single word came through the speakers.

"First gate cleared." Sue said. "Here we go."

"First gate?" Rebecca asked as Sue started the quinjet forward.

"Paranoia is a staple of Kree thinking." Sue said.

They passed through 2 more security zones and each time Sue gave the correct password. At the last zone a seemingly solid wall folded back to reveal the Kree base. Sue heard the gasp from the others as they saw the alien facility.

It was big, very big. Sun lamps set into the 80-foot high ceiling lit the base that was easily the size of three football fields. Most of the vast chamber was empty save for the middle. There, between two large ships was an even larger building. It was four stories high and gun emplacements were set on the roof. Smaller buildings branched off and vanished into the wall of the cave. The top of the building was clear glass, giving them a look at a full control room. Below that were small windows. On either side of the building were ships in skeletal cradles. Both were about 50 feet long and 40 feet at their widest point. The ships were arrow shaped with a ball shaped rear section connected by a thick central staff to a wedge shaped head. Their skin was smooth black metal with no markings at all.

"How did they get those ships in here?" Rebecca asked.

"The main doors are over there." Sue said pointing to the other side of the cavern. "But they can only be opened by the control tower."

Sue moved the quinjet into the cavern and landed by the main building. The quinjet seemed very small next to the Kree ships.

"I'll go out and take a look around." Sue said. "Jan, stay and keep your hands on the guns, ok?"

"Jan will watch." Jan said.

"I thought you said it was empty?" Mary Jane asked as Sue walked toward the hatch. May and Ben stared at her as she went past them. Out of the corner of her eye Sue watched them draw back.

"It was 13 years ago." Sue said. "But now..."

"Shouldn't we come with you?" Rebecca asked.

"I do better alone." Sue said. She took a comunicator from the wall next to the hatch and then opened the hatch. "I'll signal you if it's clear."

Sue turned invisible and left.

_I'm beginning to realize why Victor wore that mask,_ Sue thought as she stopped at the entrance to the control tower. The air was warm, but there was a cool breeze and the place smelled alien. A tinge of a slightly acidic aroma permeated the air. _Everytime those kids look at me... they're scared of me. _A rueful smiled played across Sue's face. _It's a good thing they didn't see ME naked. Then again why shouldn't they be scared? From the looks of things they've had a fairly normal life, home, school... In less than a day their worlds been shattered and an ugly old lady with a scar is talking about taking them into outer space! God what am I going to do if they don't want to come? Mary Jane has no idea what the Sentinels will do to her and her kids. _Sue let her free hand feel her stomach where the telltale sterilization scar was. _I can't leave them here; they've got no chance against the Sentinels. We can't take all of them on the road either. I could barely keep Jan and myself alive._

The door opened after Sue keyed in the right password and she pushed all the other thoughts out of her mind.

The Kree above all were a military race. To them everything was to be well ordered. The first floor was given over to a reception area and offices. The next floor was living quarters for the techs, the next floor combined dormitories with an armory. The Kree theory was that in a surprise attack the techs would delay the invaders and give the soldiers time to reach their weapons. The floor after that was given to officer living quarters and dining rooms, the next floor held executive offices and the top floor was the control tower. The walls were all muted pastel colors. In the back of the building was a large warehouse. Sue searched every room, closet and storage room. She took her time and kept invisible, but found nothing. The hardest places to search were the officers quarters. Reed, Sue, Ben, Franklin and Johny had used those quarters while they checked out the base. Sue placed her hand on the bed in the room she and Reed had used. They had expected to be back so quickly... But the SHIELD summons to New York had seemed urgent, if vague. But then Nick Fury had a habit of being vague. There was no way to know that they were heading toward their doom. An image of the SHIELD helicarrier attacking the Baxter Building tried to force it's way into Sue's mind but she fought it off.

Turning away from the bed Sue moved on.

In the control tower she turned visible and checked on the system status. All the lights were green.

"They make good bases." Sue said to herself as she double-checked the security systems. The base had been left in automatic mode and the self-maintenance systems had done their jobs well. Going to one of the windows she waved to Jan who was watching from the quinjets cockpit.

"It's clear Jan." Sue said into the communicator. "Everyone can come in and pick out a place to sleep. For the moment we're safe."

"This place is awesome." Rebecca said.

"The Kree build good bases." Sue agreed. They were sitting in what Sue guessed was the officer's dining room. Jarvis had no trouble finding the kitchen area and while the Kree food replicators defeated him (they would not, he maintained, frustrate him for long), he had packed away a good deal of food in the quinjet before they took off. Mary Jane and her children had gone to check out the sleeping quarters while Jan was sitting next to Sue playing with her doll. She was wearing one of Jarvis's coats and it hung on Jan's small frame like a tent, something Sue suspected Mary Jane was grateful for.

_Someone cooking for me,_ Sue thought. She took a sip of water and tried not let her hand shake. Jarvis was a connection to her old self, her old way of life. It was too easy, too scary, to let her guard down. His appearance helped. The Avengers former butler was tall, but walked stooped, limping on a damaged foot. He was bald but sported a long un-kept beard and his clothes were torn and old.

The room was luxurious by Kree standards, with a large round table, holograms on the wall of the Kree homeworld and thick carpeting. The table bore the symbol of the Kree military: a sword in a planet.

"Is this Kree planet the place we are going to?" Rebecca asked.

"I don't think so. They don't remember the Fantastic Four or the Avengers with very much affection." Sue said with a smile.

"And we haven't decided if we're going anyplace or not." Mary Jane said walking into the room. Behind Mary Jane came May and Ben. May was staring at the room around them. Ben was carrying something in his hands and as soon as she heard the sound it made Sue dropped her water. The glass was not breakable, but the sound it made and the way Sue stood up made everyone look.

"Where did you get that?" she demanded.

It was a hand held video game. Above a small pad shapes of random size and color appeared along with sounds. Each shape had to be assembled with another shape of the same type before both moved out of range.

"I found it!" Ben said nearly dropping the game in fright. "It was under one of the beds... I..."

"It's ok Ben." Mary Jane said. "What is it Sue?"

"I..." Sue gripped the table and sank back into her chair. "I'm sorry." She said. Jan put her hand on Sue's and squeezed. "That was Franklin's. My son's. He left it here by accident, just before we were called by to New York. He complained about it all the way home." Sue let out a sharp laugh and choked back the cry that came with it. "I had to yell at him to get him to be quiet."

"I'm sorry." Ben said quietly. He started toward her. "Do you want it?"

"No." Sue said the word as almost a growl and Ben quickly backed up. "No." Sue said getting herself under control. "That's alright. Toys should be played with."

Sue closed her eyes and shook her head to get herself back under control. The Sentinels rule of no tech beyond the 1930 level had nearly killed the electronics industry. Tube tech was coming back as fast as enterprising warlords could put factories into production, but there was no way tube technology could produce a video game or a computer. All other technology was taken for the Sentinels own uses. The result was a black-market in ever more rare and valuable pre-sentinel tech. The hand held game Ben had found, that Reed had built out of spare parts, could probably have fetched the price of a good sized house.

Sue fought back the maelstrom of pain and opened her eyes again. Everyone was seated and looking at her.

"How did you find this place?" Mary Jane asked.

"The Kree techs were repairing one of the ships out there." Sue said, gesturing toward the wall. "When they were re-aligning the hyperdrive it gave off a magnetic signal that we picked up in the Baxter Building. Reed studied it for a few months, trying to figure out what it was, then we got caught in the middle of the Kree/Skrull war.

"Bad." Jan said. "Lots of fighting. We won though."

"Sort of." Sue said. "Reed bluffed both races into thinking that the other race would transmit a signal to Galactus unless peace was declared. While we were in the middle of it he realized that the magnetic pulse he was picking up came from a Kree ship. We came to investigate and found this place."

"Both sides must have thought the other destroyed it or something." Rebecca said.

"That's what we thought." Sue said. "My hope is that they finished the repairs and that one or both of those ships can take us where we want to go."

"But where is that?" Rebecca asked.

"Dinner." Jarvis announced walking into the room. Even though his foot was still twisted the Englishman walked with a crooked sort of grace that reminded Sue of a sailor at sea. He had cleaned himself up a little as well and looked less like a vagrant. He placed a bowl of hot soup and bread in front off all them as well as a pitcher of milk for the center of the table.

"Thank you Jarvis." Jan said and for a moment was the adult Jan that spoke.

"Very good ma'am." he said.

"Jarvis." Sue said as he was about to go. "I have a healing unit in the quinjet. Before you go to sleep tonight let me put it on your foot, it may be able to heal you."

"Thank you Mrs. Richards." Jarvis said. "It has been rather hard at times to get around."

"Where could we go?" Rebecca asked, not letting the subject go.

"Planet X1." Sue said. To took a sip from the soup and marveled at how good it tasted. It wasn't too hot, too cold or filled with unpleasant things. "The Fantastic Four helped them locate to a new planet when their old planet was destroyed, and we took care of Torgo, the tyrant who ruled them. Trouble is they are a very short people, no more than 5 inches tall."

"What about the Rigelians?" Jan asked. "They like us."

"It's a thought." Sue said. Then she explained to the rest of them. "The colonizers of Rigel are a scholarly race, they've settled quite a few planets, but they tend to be stuffy. Not quite friendly to outsiders living among them."

"How many planets have you visited?" May asked.

"Over a dozen." Sue said. "Not counting the ones in the Negative zone, and we have no way of getting to those even if we wanted to."

"Are there any who would help us overthrow the Sentinels?" Mary Jane asked.

"Maybe." Sue said. "But even if we did beat them, who would take their place?"

"There are good men and women out there." Mary Jane said.

"I haven't met any for 13 years outside of yourself." Sue replied. She kept her voice steady and drank her milk.

"This country was built once before." Mary Jane said. "It can be rebuilt."

"It was built over a period of 200 years," Sue countered, "and it started out as a somewhat isolated agrarian community."

The others were watching them and out of the corner of her eye Sue saw Jarvis standing in the doorway.

"It just seems wrong to leave." Mary Jane said. "We should try to help somehow."

"How?" Sue asked. "Mary Jane, Jan and I escaped in the beginning of the summer, we've spent all these months moving across the country. I can tell you that if there is resistance to the Sentinels it's well hidden. Maybe ten years ago, or even eight years ago we might have started some sort of movement, but not now."

"We have those ships." Rebecca said. "They must have weapons."

"I hope they do." Sue said. "But again, even if we do destroy the Sentinels that leaves who? The Kingpin, AIM, The Magia, The TaskMaster and a hundred different warlords scattered across three continents. They won't give up power easily and I'd lay odds that none of them want the US government back. It's simply too late."

"But..." Mary Jane started but Sue cut her off.

"Ben." Sue asked. "Do you know what the bill of rights is?"

"Sure." he said.

"The constitution?"

"Yes."

"Has your mother ever voted that you know of?"

"No." Ben thought for a moment. "Sometimes someone would ask about that in school, voting and all, but we never got an answer really."

"The kid who asked never showed up again either." May said. "They never called his name at roll call or anything."

"There you have it." Sue said. "How long before the constitution isn't taught at all? We've lost a generation Mary Jane. They've been raised in anti-mutant hate and the adults have gone along with it. Jan and I saw lynch mobs out there."

"It can be turned around." Mary Jane said.

"By who?" Sue asked. "Me? I can't lie to you Mary Jane I don't have it in me. I feel like Chief Joseph at the Canadian border."

"Who?" Ben asked.

"Did your school teach you anything about Native American's?" Sue asked.

"Injuns?"

"So much for political correctness." Sue said. "Yes, indians. Chief Joseph was a leader of a tribe that didn't want to be on a reservation. He tried to lead his people out of what was then the US and into Canada. He didn't make it. After a long and exhausting trip, by foot over the US they stopped him just before he made it. When called upon to surrender he said this:

"I am tired of fighting. Our chiefs are killed. Looking Glass is dead. Toohulhulsote is dead. The old men are all dead. It is the young men who say no and yes. He who led the young men is dead. It is cold and we have no blankets. The little children are freezing to death. My people, some of them, have run away to the hills and have no blankets, no food.

No one know where they are- Perhaps they are freezing to death. I want to have time to look for my children

And see how many of them I can find. Maybe I shall find them among the dead. Hear me, my chiefs, I am tired. My heart is sad and sick. From where the sun now stands I will fight no more forever."

Her voice had become more and more strained as Sue talked about children and the pain in her tones seemed to fill the room. She cleared her throat.

"I feel the same way he did. No more fighting for Jan or me, we tried and lost. Now it's time to retire from the field."

"His tribe survived." Mary Jane insisted.

"And that is what I mean to do." Sue said. "But unlike him I mean to survive where I choose. Jan and I deserve some small amount of peace for whatever time we have left."

_This is going nowhere, _Sue thought. _Mary Jane still thinks of me as part of the Fantastic Four, a heroine who can overcome odds. She wants me to make the world safe for her children. God I wish I could. But I can't. I don't have it in me anymore, I'm not even angry enough to hate the Sentinels. I'm just numb._

"We could stay here." Rebecca said. "This place seems pretty safe."

"It is." Sue said. "But stay here and do what? Wait to be found? Wait for some accident of fate to reveal us? Hiding is not a workable long range strategy."

No one said anything and Sue realized that the argument was over, but that she hadn't won it. The meal was over as well; everyone had finished his or her soup.

"Look." Sue said standing up. "All of this is merely academic unless those ships work. Give me some time to check them out, then we can decide."

"That sounds good." Mary Jane said. "For now lets all try to get some sleep, it's been a hard day."

_I have to find someway to convince them, _Sue thought. _It's the only way to save them. _Sue watched as Ben and May helped Jarvis with the dishes. _I can't let them stay and be able to live with myself knowing what the Sentinels will do when they catch them all._

Sue couldn't sleep. She had let Jan take a bath, both feeling good and bad as Jan enjoyed herself in the water, splashing, laughing and playing with her doll, then laid on the bed next to her until Jan went to sleep. Watching Jan bathe had evoked both good and bad feelings in Sue. Good because Jan was relaxed and enjoying herself, bad because she played around like a five-year-old. Sue had gotten used to Jan's mental state, but every so often she remembered the witty sophisticated woman who had led the Avengers and run her own company at the same time.

Sue had chosen one of the smaller officers quarters, not daring to use any of the rooms the Fantastic Four had once used. After making sure Jan was asleep Sue had taken a long hot shower with soap. Sue hadn't forgotten what a hot shower felt like, but she hadn't realized just how scarred her body had become. As her hands felt each of those scars the memories resurfaced. Fight after fight, struggle after struggle and all of them ending up the same way: with her loosing. The guards who beat her were always proud and they always made sure to leave scars. Depressed Sue had gotten back into bed. Jan curled into a tight ball, hugging her doll to her chest to protect it and breathing softly. Sue and Jan slept above the covers and nude and Sue's hand kept searching for the gun that wasn't there. She could have kept one, but it was too dangerous. Often in the past few months Sue had woken up already shooting at the shadows, she wouldn't risk that with the others. It had been a while since either of them had slept in a bed and a clean one felt strange to her. There was a shock in it as well, that morning all Sue had expected was another day of moving and maybe fighting. The culture shock of warm food, warm bed and someone to talk to other than Jan was staggering. Jan, she knew, would sleep anywhere as long as Sue slept next to her.

_That's bothering them, _Sue thought. _They look at Jan and have no idea how to act. Especially when she runs around stark naked. Poor Ben, I remember Franklin when the She-Hulk joined us for a while, I had to lecture Jennifer about locking the bathroom door when she took a shower. And sleeping nude. How many times did she run out naked when an alert sounded? How many times did Johny pull the alarm just to tease her?_

For an instant Sue let herself remember better times. Then there was a knock at the door and Sue was tensed to spring off of the bed, a force field thrown around both her and Jan, before she could think. After a moment the knock was repeated and Sue relaxed.

"Come in." She said softly.

"I didn't want to wake you up." Mary Jane said walking into the room. She was wearing a full-length floral nightgown and carrying two more. "But I realized you probably didn't have anything to sleep in."

"Thank you." Sue said. She got off of the bed and put the nightgown on. It was silk and flowed over her body easily. "I'll give Jan's to her when she wakes up. It's better if I don't wake her up, she gets scared."

"I understand." Mary Jane said. She hesitated for a moment. "About leaving Earth..."

"Mary Jane it's late." Sue said. She was too tired for the argument to start again.

"Ben and May can walk on the ceiling." Mary Jane said quietly.

"Oh." Sue said understanding.

"I don't want them to have a new world Sue." She walked over to a wall hologram showing a Kree ocean. "I want them to have the world I grew up in, or at least as close to it as I can get."

"Mary Jane I'd give anything to have that world back." Sue said. Mary Jane sat on the bed and Sue sat next to her. "But Humpty-Dumpty has fallen. If we had someone, someone like Cap, or Reed, or your husband, maybe we could take the world and tape some of it back together. But look at us. I'm old, Jan's lost so much of herself she plays with dolls, we don't have the power or the drive to save the world anymore."

Sue reached over and stroked Jan's hair.

"I wish I did."

"I understand." Mary Jane said. "I know it's bad out there. But I was proud to be an American Sue. So was Peter. We never actually said it, but we were. Now my kids will never know what was, what it meant. Not really. The elections in Nevada were always fixed, everyone knew it."

_I didn't think of it that way,_ Sue thought. _Maybe saving the world so often I lost sight of being a citizen. But I voted, so did we all. Even Ben._

"I know that I haven't seen everything you have." Mary Jane said, breaking into Sue's thoughts. "But I still have a hard time believing that every decent person has been wiped off the face of the planet."

"I told you, we started in New York State." Sue said. "We ended up in Nevada. I didn't find any resistance."

"But I'm not talking about resistance." Mary Jane said. "I asking if you found anyone good, anyone who was still trying to act civilized."

_Anyone like you. _Sue finished for her. _I didn't, but to be honest after the Hoffman farm I didn't really look. There didn't seem to be any point._

"No I didn't." Sue said. "And at any rate Mary Jane what I said before still goes. There are thousands and thousands of Sentinels out there. They rule the world. The other countries only stopped a nuclear war last year by agreeing to let the Sentinels implement their anti-mutant programs."

"But that's why you can't go." Mary Jane insisted. "You're the last Sue, the last of the Fantastic Four. Can you really leave all those people to face the Sentinels alone?"

"The Sentinels are not alone!" Sue snapped. "They are never alone Mary Jane!" Sue dropped her voice as Jan stirred uneasily in her sleep. "Those people you want me to save are the very people who helped the Sentinels!"

"Not all of them." Mary Jane insisted.

"Enough!" Sue growled leaping to her feet. She took Mary Jane's hand and pulled her across the room and into the bathroom. Once there Sue turned on the light and pulled off her nightgown and tossed it angrily back to Mary Jane.

"See this?" She said pointing the long thin scar on her stomach. "Week one in the camp, some men took me, stripped me and strapped me down to a table. They gave me a local anesthetic and then a doctor came in and cut me open. Sterilization. They did the same to Jan. They used a local so a Grey could question me while they were operating!"

"My god!" Mary Jane whispered.

"I knew the doctor, he used to work a hospital where the FF did charity appearances, our money built half of the place. I saved his wife from a mugger once. But that didn't help me one little bit. After I was healed he raped me, said he'd been wanting to do it for years. Then he brought his wife in so she could "thank" me. Then they raped Jan. Then they charged to let other men and women rape us."

Sue turned away from her and sat on the toilet seat.

"It's horrible." Mary Jane said.

"I don't owe humanity anything anymore." Sue said.

"Then if me and my family hadn't been in a quinjet you would have just ridden away?"

"Yes." Sue said coldly. "Because the last time I did help people I got caught and Jan lost a foot. So after that I made damn sure I helped no one! It's horrible, it's mean, it's every bad adjective you can think of, but it's the way we survived!"

"And you don't think the world can be made better?" Mary Jane challenged.

"How?" Sue almost pleaded.

"First get rid of the Sentinels." Mary Jane said. "Then set up a government, one that teaches something besides hate. The children are the key Sue, if we can teach them to think and care... The way you used to.

"What about the parents?" Sue asked. "What about them? Who keeps them under control? Mary Jane I saw two mobs kill each over a cache of canned food. I saw people crucified on the road with a big M carved into their chest. My god they are eating each other in some places out there! You've got groups who worship the Sentinels as gods!"

"And you don't want to stop that? Think of what's going on in Europe right now, think of all those people being herded into camps just like you were. Shouldn't you at least try to help them?"

"And if I fail?" Sue said.

"Then you fail and we'll all most likely die." Mary Jane said. "Peter told me that with great power came great responsibility, he said the Fantastic Four were the best examples of that."

"We were." Sue said. "But that was 13 years and 4043 rapes ago. I remember each one of those rapes Mary Jane. Every single one. I can remember all the beatings too; do you want that number? "Good" men and women committed a lot of them. Do you want to know how many times I was beaten? Do you know I only have 8 good teeth left in my mouth?" Sue stood up and backed Mary Jane into the wall. "You say try and if we fail, we fail. You have no idea what failure means."

"There are good people out there." Mary Jane insisted.

Sue growled and suddenly she pinned Mary Jane to the wall with a force field.

"Feel that?" Sue asked as Mary Jane struggled against the invisible energy.

"Sue... Let me go." Mary Jane demanded, more confused than frightened.

"This is how it feels Mary Jane." Sue said. She reached under Mary Jane's nightgown and felt the other woman's breast. She squeezed it. Her other hand pressed between Mary Jane's legs. "Helpless, frightened, humiliated..." Sue moved closer pressed her face close to Mary Jane's as if she were going to kiss the other woman. Sue grabbed Mary Jane's chin and forced her to look at her face. "Look at my face Mary Jane! Look at IT!"

Mary Jane was terrified now. Sue could see it in her eyes and for a moment it felt good. Then a tear escaped from Mary Jane's eye and Sue truly saw herself.

"Sue..." Mary Jane pleaded.

Letting her go Sue whirled around, dropped to her knees and threw up into the toilet.

It was a few confused minutes before Mary Jane recovered from her shock. Then she knelt down next to her and held Sue's shoulders until she stopped heaving. After that Mary Jane held Sue in a hug until the other woman stopped shaking.

"I'm sorry." Sue said. Her face was pale and her scar a vivid red, but she had not cried.

"No." Mary Jane said. "I am, I had no right to ask you..."

"Yes you did." Sue said. "And I had no right to take my anger out on you. That was selfish."

"I was being selfish too." Mary Jane said. "I don't know, really know, what you've gone through. I thought I had it bad, but you had it worse. I'm sorry for that. But I don't want my children to grow up on some alien world. I guess I'm just not ready to give up on this one yet."

"I am." Sue said. "Your husband was right Mary Jane, with great power comes great responsibility, but in this we don't have enough power. I won't choose suicide for myself or for Jan. On my own I can take out one sentinel, maybe 3. But that's it. Jan couldn't beat one and the rest of you... your children, when they get older, maybe. But at the moment our resources are two broken down heroines, two children, one teenager, a butler and you. Do you really think that's enough to save the world?"

"I don't know." Jan said. "But I think the world is still worth saving."

For a time the two women just sat in silence.

_God can she be right? _The thought hit Sue Richards hard. _Have I been so wrapped up in just surviving... But no damn-it! Mary Jane hasn't been out there, she doesn't know. I've got to make her see the way things are. For both our sakes._

"Look." Sue said. "We have time, it'll take me days to see if those ships are good enough to get us out of here. Tomorrow I'll show you how to use the Kree surveillance systems. They had four spy satellites, if the Sentinels haven't detected them then you can see the world for yourself. If you can come up with a plan that sounds workable I'll listen."

"And if I can't we'll go." Mary Jane said. "No more complaints."

"Deal." Sue said.

They stood up and Jan handed Sue the nightgown. For a moment Sue didn't make any move to take it. Then she reluctantly took it, but did not make any move to put it on.

"Please wear it." Mary Jane said. Sue turned away and didn't say anything. "It's just a gift Sue, it's not part of the deal."

"Isn't it?" Sue asked. "My body is a map of what I went through. You don't want to see that map do you?" 

"Please, if nothing else wear it for my son's sake?" Mary Jane tried to smile. "I'm having a hard enough time with Ben as it is. Before I came in I caught him heading this way with a; "midnight snack" for Jan."

Sue laughed and both women, for a moment, shared a common link.

"How old is he?" Sue asked.

"14. It's been hard enough with us living in Vegas and his mother being a stripper."

"All right." Sue said. She put on the nightgown and started to get into the bed.

"Thank you." Mary Jane said.

She left and Sue turned on her side and hugged Jan until she fell asleep.

The next day brought a rare smile to Sue's face. The healing unit had reconstructed the damaged muscles in Jarvis's ankle and he was able to walk naturally again. To add to the effect he had shaved off his beard and, but for looking older than Sue remembered, could have been his old self. A breakfast of toast and eggs was waiting for them all. Jan was so happy that she shrunk out of her clothes and flew around the room before sitting down next to Sue and growing to full size again.

"Here Jan." Mary Jane said, handing Jan a robe as soon as Jan grew back to normal size again. Ben was staring once again.

"No!" Jan shrieked. She dove off of the chair and half-fell/half-ran behind Sue.

"What?" Mary Jane stumbled back, stunned by the reaction. "What's wrong?"

"It's ok Mary Jane, you didn't know." Sue said. She got off the chair and helped a terrified Jan get into hers. Mary Jane looked down and realized that he robe in her hand was now invisible.

"I don't wear grey. Can't wear grey." Jan whispered over and over, hugging herself into a ball.

"It's ok Jan." Sue said, stroking her hair. She looked up at them. "Grey was the only color we wear allowed to wear in the camp. The Sentinels scanners were specifically attuned to it. If we wore anything else the Sentinels thought we were trying to escape. Sometimes if the guards were bored they'd lock me up and force Jan to wear some other color. Jan had to run away from the robots and strip fast before she was caught."

"What happened if she was caught?" Rebecca asked.

"Two days random electro-shock." Sue said. "I'm not sure why, but a while after she lost her foot at the Hoffman farm Jan has been terrified to wear anything grey."

"I'm sorry." Mary Jane said. She walked over to the waste unit and put the robe into it.

"It's ok Jan." Sue said. "You don't have to wear grey."

"Jan bad, Jan wear grey Jan bad, Jan better naked..." Jan was crying, her skin was white as a sheet and Sue could tell that Mary Jane was torn with guilt. "Jan shrieked as if someone was attacking her and Sue hugged her close.

"Jan used to wear a lot of pretty clothes didn't she?" Rebecca asked coming around the table. She bent down next to Jan. "You were the fashion plate of the Avengers. Costume a day from what my father once said."

"Yea, bright colors, pretty colors." Jan said and the trembling of her body slowed. "Jan was good then, Jan was good girl."

"Like this?" Rebecca asked pointing to her own blue and white striped T-shirt. Jan nodded.

"Here." Rebecca said pulling off her shirt. Underneath she was wearing a beige bra. "Put your arms up." Jan did so and Rebecca slipped the shirt onto her. "Better huh?"

"Feels good." Jan said. "Not dirty. "Nothing squirming in it."

"Good, try this." Rebecca slipped out of her skirt and helped Jan to put it on. They were sizes off, but once the belt was tightened the skirt stayed in place.

"You look better now." Rebecca said.

"Blue is Jan's color." Jan said. Suddenly she seemed to see the food on the table.

"Eggs!" She cried reaching for a fork.

"I'll be right back." Rebecca said, blushing as she suddenly realized that she was in nothing but a bra and panties. She hurried out of the room. Ben's eyes followed her.

We have got to do something about this, Mary Jane's look said to Sue. Sue nodded.

The rest of the breakfast passed quietly. Rebecca returned wearing a new T shirt and a pair of jeans.

"Rebecca." Sue said as they ate. "While I'm working on the ships today and Mary Jane is scanning the Kree surveillance systems, can you take Jan and see if you can do a survey of the supplies in this place? Maybe find her some clothes?"

"Sure." Rebecca said.

"Not with you?" Jan asked giving Sue a worried look.

"You'll be ok Jan." Sue said. "We're safe here."

"Safe nowhere." Jan said. "But Jan likes Rebecca."

"Can I help with the ship?" Ben asked.

"No young fellow you and May will be with me." Jarvis said. "I talked with Mrs. Parker this morning and we both agreed that it is about time I was allowed to teach you true history."

"What they got in school was heavily twisted." Mary Jane said.

"Can I see the ship later?" Ben asked.

"After lunch." Sue said.

"Thanks for understanding about Jan." Mary Jane said as they walked into the control center. "I wasn't trying to hurt her, but Ben's got enough to handle right now without seeing naked women all over the place."

"Rebecca was the real help." Sue said. "I think it's a good idea Jan started to get used to someone besides me anyway."

Sue led Mary Jane over to a console that looked like a massive church organ and pulled out a chair. Sitting down Sue pushed a few buttons and spoke in the Kree language. Instantly the console lit up with nearly a hundred lights and holographic screens filled with maps and alien script came to life.

The computer system was built with rigid lines of complex logic and Sue could tell from the look on Mary Jane's face that the woman had never seen anything like it.

"You better take notes." Sue said handing her a notepad that she had gotten from the quinjet.

"I guess." Mary Jane said breathlessly, trying to take it all in.

"It would be easier if you spoke Kree." Sue said. "The system is made for intelligent scans, but only on voice command." She started to type in a series of commands. "Luckily the Kree spies used to increase their understanding of our language by working with it on their own systems. All I have to do is trigger the translation program. But it doesn't work for voice input."

The screen writing changed quickly to English and a list of names; dates and places came up.

"How long do these records go back?" Mary Jane asked.

"Looks like 91." Sue said. "That is about when this base went online. My guess is that the computers have been keeping track of things ever since. It wasn't un-common for the Kree to leave bases un-occupied for years, centuries even. I'm just glad there wasn't a Kree sentry robot waiting for us here."

"This could take a while to sort through." Mary Jane said. "I'm not even sure what I'm looking for."

"Evidence that mankind is worth the trouble of even trying to save it." Sue said. Try as she might Sue could not keep the cynicism out of her voice.

"Right." Mary Jane said, trying to match Sue's cynicism with a voice full of optimism. She wasn't successful either.

"Here is how you start." Sue said reaching for a control button.

The Kree spacecraft designation number was nearly unpronounceable with the human tongue. By the end of the day Sue had used many variations on it combined with some colorful phrases of her own.

The craft was a special operations spacecraft and was considered the Swiss army knife of the Kree fleet. Made to be tough, independent and deadly. The front wedge held the flight deck, the shaft that led to the engine held two rooms with bunks on the wall, a small kitchen, bathroom, a cargo area with double doors that opened in the floor and two gun stations. Sue remembered that Reed and Ben had talked about the different types of Kree and Skrull spacecraft over diner many times. Like two old fighter jocks they had talked about differences in range, capability and weapons. Ben had an instinctive concept of what a ship could do, often simply from looking at it, while Reed could describe the ships systems and speculate on how they worked. Johny would throw in the occasional wisecrack.

Sue remembered those talks as she worked with the ship, and she remembered the dinners where everyone sat and talked and joked. It was all she could do to keep from crying.

She started in the flight deck. Here were six chairs, pilot, co-pilot, navigator, engineer, left and right gunner, positions Sue could understand. The trouble was each control console had it's own redundant computer system that only would link to the main system after a full systems test. This would not have been a problem, but the main computer system stubbornly refused to come online without either an emergency code that Sue did not have, or a report from all the other computers that the ship was functioning at nominal levels.

It was, as the text readout patiently explained to Sue, a matter of safety for a ship that had been in hibernation mode for so long. And without the main computer's authorization the separate computer in the engineering section would not come online and tell Sue if the hyperdrive would work or not. Unlike the base computer system the two ships had shut themselves down completely.

Sue had no idea why the Kree had laid the system out this way, but they had and she had to work with it. Another stall point was reached as she started up the separate systems. The ship had been in hibernation mode for a long time so subsystems had to be started manually. This meant that Sue had to first start the system, wait for the error message to display, discern what the error message was talking about, find that part of the ship, figure out how to turn the subsystem on, and then return to the flight deck and start from the beginning.

A fully trained Kree crew probably would have done the job in about ten minutes. By late morning all Sue had managed to do was to get life support to start and run for five minutes before shutting down. By then she was emotionally exhausted. Reed's endless talks about Kree technology, talks that Sue had often only half listened too, kept replaying in her mind. Many times Sue was lost in thought and actually turned expecting to see him behind her. Then the memories would be just memories, his ghost would fade and Sue would re-live his death.

Sue guessed it was near mid-day when she saw Rebecca and Ben. The sun lamps that lit the base were set on a Kree Homeworld 40 hour cycle and they were all lit. Rebecca and Ben had rolled out a stack of blue and green boxes into the open and Rebecca was trying to hit the boxes with Captain America's shield.

Sue looked up from the pilot's seat and watched for a few minutes. Rebecca would throw the shield; miss and then Ben would run and get it for her. Rebecca was trying and becoming more and more frustrated as the shield didn't seem to go where she wanted it too.

Sighing Sue set the ship's computer to standby mode and opened the hatch.

"Go left you..." Rebecca grunted as the shield sailed past the crates missing them by about 5 feet. It sailed on for about a hundred feet before dropping to the ground.

"Thanks." Rebecca said as Ben brought it back to her.

"Where is Jan?" Sue asked scaring the two of them.

"Do you have to turn invisible all the time?" Rebecca demanded.

"I wasn't invisible." Sue said. "You weren't paying attention."

"She's with my sister." Ben said.

"This thing was supposed to come back to me." Rebecca said. "Why didn't it?"

"What did you find in the supplies?" Sue asked taking the shield from her. "What is in those crates?"

"Those are empty, but we found boxes of clothes and stuff."

"Stuff?" Sue asked.

"Yea stuff." Rebecca said shrugging. "Looks like spare parts, or clothes no guns."

"I think there was a box of computer disk or something." Ben said.

"I wanted a better list than: "Stuff" Sue said. "We need to know what we have available."

"But I wanted to practice." Rebecca said.

"You can practice later." Sue said. "When I ask you to do something, do it."

"Says who." Rebecca challenged.

"Says the person who is going to show you how to do this." Sue said.

Taking a step back Sue drew her arm and let the shield fly. It knocked the crates over, hit off of the wall of the main building and then flew back to them.

"Shock!" Ben whispered.

"You used your powers!" Rebecca snapped.

"No I didn't." Sue said. "You were throwing it wrong. I'll show you how tomorrow, after lunch, do that inventory on the supplies."

"You're not in charge of us!" Rebecca said.

"Yes I am." Sue said. "Because either I'm in charge or none of us will survive."

"Like you've done so hot till now?" Rebecca snapped.

She regretted it the instant she said it, Sue could tell that from the look on her face. Rebecca probably didn't have a mean bone in her body.

_Down Sue, _Sue thought stifling her anger. _Remember 2 days ago she was in a semi-normal life. She hasn't even dealt with her rape yet._

"I've done ok." Sue said, giving Rebecca a smile that hi-lighted the scar on her face. Taking Rebecca's hand she put the shield into it and pressed the young girl's fingers into a slight groove on the edge. "Now draw back and throw." Sue said. "Not hard, but not like a Frisbee either, throw it like your pitching a softball."

Puzzlement and guilt competed on Rebecca's face, but she threw the shield. It sailed in an arc around the fallen crates and then circled back to her. Rebecca caught it clumsily in the stomach and fell back as the wind was knocked out of her. Sue caught her before she fell over.

"It's not a question of being in charge Rebecca." Sue said. "It's a question of experience. I know what can go wrong and I know far better than you do the consequences. If somehow we're discovered and there is an attack tomorrow, and there was something in the supplies that could help us, then I should know it today, not tomorrow. Understand?"

"I guess." Rebecca said.

"I promise you, I'll teach you how to throw the shield."

"And fight." Rebecca said. "I want to be what my parents were."

"And I want to be what my father was." Ben chipped in. "Mom knows the formulae for the webbing, I just have to make the shooters and I got the plans."

For a moment Sue was stunned. That anyone would want to go back to the life she was desperate to get away from struck her as insane. Then she realized.

_They don't know. Not even Rebecca. They don't know the price you have to pay for putting on the costume and the mask. God can I make them see? Should I? Can I train them? I'm trying to make them see that we should get the hell of off the planet and these two are just like Mary Jane. They really think we can win!_

They were waiting for an answer. Sue could read hope and fear on their faces, in their eyes. They were young enough to look for guidance, young enough to believe it could be done, but not old enough to realize it might not be possible, that failure could and most likely would happen to them.

_And after the failure comes the torture. But if I don't teach them they'll have no chance anyway, and whatever happens just being who they are will draw them into battles, just like us. The FF never went looking for trouble, it picked up a flashlight and hunted us down instead._

"I'll teach you both." Sue said. "If your mother says it's ok Ben."

"She will." Ben said with the steady assurance of a kid going to a promised Baseball game.

"Tomorrow." Sue said. "But for the rest of the day I want that inventory."

"It's a deal." Rebecca said. "Right after lunch."

Rebecca and Ben hurried off and Sue stood there watching them. Something made her look up and she saw Mary Jane watching them from the control tower. Mary Jane nodded and turned away.

_Dear God, _Sue thought. _Am I doing the right thing? Mary Jane knows. She probably expected it. But no matter how hard or how well I train them they could fail. Does she know that? Of course she does. But she wants me to train them for the same reason I'll have to train them, because of who we are and when we are in history. Why fool myself? Even if I get them off Earth Rebecca and Ben, hell maybe all of them will want to come back and do what I would have done 14 years ago. Try to fix things._

Sue looked at the Kree ship and then walked toward the main building. She was hungry.

_God I pity them,_ she thought.

Jan and May were sitting on the bed in the room May had chosen. Jan had shrunk once more and was being held down by May as Sue walked in.

"Don't squirm." May ordered the diminutive heroine as she fitted a pair of pants on the miniaturized Jan.

"Tickles." Jan squealed.

"There." May announced. She held up a small mirror and the Wasp inspected herself.

"Jan look good." Jan said. She was wearing a pair of white knee-length shorts with a blue halter-top and a piece of gold string around her waist. Because she was so small the scars on her arms and legs weren't visible, and with her soft brown hair flowing around her shoulders Jan looked like the Wasp Sue remembered."No more flying around naked for Jan." May said as if she were talking to a child. The tone irritated Sue for a moment, but she put the feeling aside.

"Lunch is almost ready." Sue said.

"Look Sue, Jan got new clothes!" Jan shouted and flew in front of her face.

"They look good Jan." Sue said "But you better switch to your other clothes before you eat.

"Good idea." Jan said and flew off happily before Sue could say anything else.

_She's coming along, _Sue thought. _Two days ago she was scared to be out of my sight._

"Thanks for the clothes." Sue said.

"It's ok." May said quietly. "Mom was going crazy what with her being naked all the time." She started to put the sewing kit away. "I saw you with Becca and Ben." Sue said nothing as the girl faced her. May was about 12 or so, years younger than Ben but with a look in her eyes. A look of certainty, of purpose. "You're going to teach them how to fight."

"Yes." Sue said. "If you're mother agrees."

"I don't want to learn how to fight." May said.

"That's up to you." Sue said. "But fighting is hard to avoid now-a-days."

"Fighting is wrong." May said. She started to arrange the dolls on the bed. "Fighting is for stupid people or muties."

"Really?" Sue asked. The way May had said that last word got Sue's attention. It was said with complete innocence, but with an edge to it as well. "Muties are bad?"

"Muties are scum." May replied in a matter-of-fact tone of voice.

_"Scum.", _Sue thought as alarms went off in her head. _Not "bad", or "strange", but "scum"._

"I'm going to be a doctor." May said. "Curing is always better than fighting."

"What are you going to cure?" Sue asked.

"Muties." May shrugged.

"Your mother tells me that you and Ben can walk on the walls."

"Yea. So what?"

"So doesn't that make you mutants as well?"

May looked at her strangely and Sue could tell that the girl had never thought of things that way. "What if the mutants can't be cured?" Sue asked.

"Kill them." May said firmly. "Kill all muties."

"Really? Your brother? You?"

"I..." May started to speak and then stopped. Picking up a doll she started to bang it against the mattress. "I don't know. But muties need to be gone, they shouldn't be here."

"May let's play a game." Sue said. Carefully she took the doll out of May's hand. The little girl looked at her confused.

"What kind of game?"

"Concentration." Sue said. She picked up one of the needles from the sewing kit and held it up infront of May's face. "Can you see the eye of the needle?"

"Sure."

"Keep looking at it." Sue said and she started to move the needle back and forth. May's eyes followed it without urging. "Just relax and keep following it with your eyes."

It only took a minute for May's eyes to stop following the needle. Her face blank the little girl stood still as stone.

"May listen to me." Sue said. "I want you to go back to that place where you're most comfortable. Can you do that for me?"

"Yes." May said, her voice barely above a whisper.

May and Sue arrived late for lunch. The meal was strained between Sue's reserved attitude and Rebecca and Ben's excitement. Afterwards Jarvis started to do the dishes. Sue dispatched Rebecca, Ben and Jan to do the inventory and motioned Mary Jane to stay.

"May, lets show your mother something in your room ok?" Sue asked.

"Sure." May said.

"Come on." Sue said to a very puzzled Mary Jane.

Once in her room May picked up a doll and gave it to her mother, then she sat down on the bed, and a blank look came over her face.

"What the hells wrong with her?" Mary Jane demanded.

"She was hypnotized by one of her teachers." Sue said.

"What?"

"May was hypnotized by one of her teachers." Sue said. "A card carrying Grey who thought that the best way to teach little children to hate mutants was hypnosis. Everyone in May's class was hypnotized."

"My god no!" Mary Jane whispered. She bent down and looked at her daughter. May stood impassively by the bed.

"I'm sorry." Sue said, putting her hand on Mary Jane's shoulder. "I'm sure we can reverse it, wipe out the garbage."

"How did you know?" Mary Jane asked.

"I've seen mind control and hypnosis a hundred times before." Sue knelt down beside her. "I came in to see how Jan was and the way she talked about mutants... they were catch phrases I knew you'd never allow her to use. May told me she wanted to be a doctor, to "cure" muties, but if she couldn't cure them, she'd kill them."

"No." Mary Jane groaned. She started to hug her daughter and then drew back, almost as if she was afraid of doing more damage. "May's a mutant. This explains so much. She's been quieter lately, but she was always the quiet one. But she's been moody too."

"They've been teaching her to hate mutants and she is one." Sue said. "It would have driven her insane if it kept on going."

"Bastards!" Mary Jane swore. "Do you know when it started?"

"It's only been going on a month or two." Sue said. "That's how the Red Skull's men found out about you, the teacher betrayed the TaskMaster and sold you out."

"Teacher... what?"

"The TaskMaster is a mutant." Sue said. "He survived the Day by undergoing voluntary sterilization and setting himself up as a mole for the Greys and the Sentinels. They've known where you've been for years."

"God!" Mary Jane whispered.

"They were hoping that if any super heroes or mutants survived they would seek you out." Sue said. "As the wife of Spiderman you were the perfect bait for the trap."

"How do you know all this?"

"It's in May's mind. She was hypnotized so they didn't bother to keep quiet around her. Every other week they'd get her alone, the TaskMaster and Miss Rasconi, put her under and ask questions."

"Bastards!" Mary Jane hissed. "All the time he said I was safe as long as I...Oh God what I did for him!"

"The anti-mutant stuff was Miss Rasconi." Sue said. "My guess is that before that they just bugged your house and watched you for the first few years."

"That's why he lost interest after a while." Mary Jane said. "I thought he just got bored with me, God I was so scared... I started doing weird sex just to keep him coming to me!"

"You were protecting your family." Sue said, putting her hand on Mary Jane's shoulder.

"He must had a good laugh." Mary Jane said. "I must have looked like... Oh God!"

"At least he had enough pity in him to set you up in a job." Sue said.

"Yea, great job." Mary Jane said bitterly. "My own club that I kept as long as I shook my ass for the customers and the girls upstairs kept them happy! I was a madam Sue! Not only a whore but a Madam! Damn him to hell! And now this? She's only 12!"

"The hypnosis is a new idea from the Greys. Miss Rasconi hid the anti-mutant stuff from the TaskMaster, but she showed him the hypnosis to get more money out of him. I guess keeping your house under surveillance was getting expensive. May could be the perfect spy."

"A teacher." Mary Jane said then repeated herself as if she did not believe he words. "A teacher."

"She'd get May alone during the school day, put her under and pour that hate into her. May had no chance. Sometimes it was May and a few of the other children, I have a feeling it was a set pattern to get all of them."

"Those poor kids." Mary Jane asked. "The one place they should have been... What now?"

"We can get the hate stuff out of her mind, it's not too deep yet."

"Of all places I thought they were safe in school." Mary Jane said. "God what an idiot I was!"

"What about Ben?" she asked looking up.

"I doubt it, I think he is too old, but we can check, and Rebecca too."

"How long will it take to get that garbage out of her?" Mary Jane asked.

"I don't know." Sue said. She guided Mary Jane onto a chair. "But I needed you here."

"Why? You could have told me later."

"May doesn't trust me." Sue said. "She's fighting my cure. I'm a mutant to her. You are her mother. I'll tell you what to say and you say it. That should do it."

Mary Jane swallowed and looked at her daughter. May was completely still, breathing lightly and staring into infinity.

"Tell me." Mary Jane said.

Two hours later both women were emotionally spent. May laid on her bed and read a book as they left.

"It was deeper than I thought." Sue said as they walked into the control tower. "Miss Rasconi is probably very well trained."

"We've gotten her straightened out I think." Mary Jane said. "But the attitude is going to linger."

She was trying to be reasonable but Sue could tell that Mary Jane just wanted to scream and smash things. She pitied the teacher if Mary Jane ever met up with Miss Rasconi again.

"Two things we have to do." Sue said. Mary Jane sat down at the control console and Sue pulled a chair up next to her. "One, get her to use her powers more, the more she uses them, the better she'll feel about them and the less she'll feel like she's doing something wrong just by existing."

"What's the other thing?"

"Get her to spend time with Jan."

"With Jan?"

Sue nodded.

"Jan's using her powers as naturally now as she ever did, it took her months to get to that point once we got out of the camp. But she's as harmless a superhuman as May will ever meet. May knows what Jan is, and being close to her will dispel any lingering feelings she has that mutants are a threat."

"But we can't tell them why." Mary Jane said.

"Not until they're older." Sue agreed. "For now let's just tell her it's a babysitting job. She has to be the one to keep clothes handy for when Jan shrinks or grows."

"She'll buy that if I ask her the right way." Mary Jane said. "She's already a bit irritated at her brother about it anyway." Mary Jane sighed and weakly punched the arm of her chair. "Damn them she's only 12 years old! How could they do that to her?"

"For the TaskMaster it wouldn't matter what age she was." Sue said. "For the Grey she's just another mutie to be used and thrown away."

For a moment they looked at each other, Mary Jane thrown by the harsh way Sue put it. Then she turned to the console.

"I've made some progress with this." Mary Jane said. "You were wrong when you said no one tried to help you."

"What?" It was Sue's turn to be shocked. "I was there, I didn't see anyone."

"The Day was better planned than we thought." Mary Jane said. She touched a control and page with the Grey's letterhead appeared on it. The letterhead was an M with circle and slash of the international prohibition symbol over it.

"The crowds were led by Grey's, and in the crowds were Grey agents, anyone trying to speak the wrong way got hit by a stun blast."

"A few people tried then." Sue said. "Out of thousands."

"You know what a mob is like." Mary Jane said.

"We both do." Sue said coldly. "Where did you get this from?"

"It's from an encrypted transmission that was sent to Project Wide Awake." Mary Jane said. "From who and too who I don't know."

"Project Wide Awake was the Sentinel project." Sue said. "Before he realized what it was about Reed did some consulting on it as a favor to Nick Fury. Even after he stopped helping Nick asked him to help on some other things. It was the in he needed to the Baxter building and our computers."

"Fury is still alive you know." Mary Jane said.

"Really?" Sue asked.

"According to the Kree surveillance systems he's running Gamma Base."

Sue shrugged.

"Is that all you have so far?"

"So far." Mary Jane said.

"Ok." Sue stood up. "I'm going to go back and work on the ship for a while before dinner."

"I'll keep working here." Mary Jane said.

_Nice try Jan, _Sue thought as she walked to the ships. _Throw me a little line about people trying to help on the Day and then try to get me mad about Nick Fury still being alive. Even after what mankind did to her daughter she's still trying to get me to save it. Well forget it Mary, those people failed and Nick Fury can dry up and blow away for all I care. I don't get mad anymore._

The hatch to the ship was slow to open and without thinking Sue reached down and wrenched it open. There was no damage as she left it open and walked inside.

"How long do I have to look at this?" Ben asked as he sat in the navigator seat of the Kree ship.

"Until it stops blinking red and green and turns to blue." Sue said. She pretended to manipulate the controls. "Just relax."

"Ok. But this is a boring ship."

"Really?"

"Yea, I mean not like the ships on Buck Rodgers."

"I guess." Sue said. Part of the Sentinels ban on tech had been re-enforced by the Grey's playing censor. Any movie or tv show they deemed: "Dangerous", was banned. That had led to a sudden reduction in movies, only those from the early 1950's or earlier were being shown. In Vegas of course those rules were not strictly enforced, not for adults at least. But for children...

_God what a generation this is going to produce, _Sue thought. _No science past high school, and damn poor science IN high school._

Twenty minutes later Ben blinked and looked up at her.

"Did I fall asleep?"

"Sort of." Sue said. "But it doesn't matter. It's nearly lunchtime and I was shutting down for a while."

"Ok." he said.

Ben hopped out of the chair and Sue followed him out of the ship. Mary Jane was walking toward them with a sheet of papers.

"Lunch is almost ready honey." She called. "Go help your sister set the table."

"Right." Ben said and was off. Mary Jane watched him go and then turned to Sue.

"Him too." Sue said. "But only once."

"Bastards!" Mary Jane swore.

"It was the same teacher." Sue said. "But since she only got to do it once I was able to wipe it out in one setting."

"Good." Mary Jane said. "That only leaves Rebecca."

"And you." Sue said.

"What?"

"Jarvis was the Avengers butler." Sue said. "He was trained in resisting hypnosis. You weren't and the TaskMaster could have drugged you."

"You're being paranoid." Mary Jane snapped.

"Yes I am." Sue said. "Prove me wrong."

For an instant Mary Jane's green eyes flashed with rage. Then she got herself under control.

"There were times when I blacked out." She said her face tightening as she remembered. "You'll take me later."

It was later that night when everyone was asleep that Mary Jane let Sue into her room.

"What about Jan?" Mary Jane said.

"I asked her to sleep with May." Sue said. "I told her that May was having bad dreams and could use the company, but not to tell her that I told. Jan can keep a secret."

"I know." Mary Jane said.

She was wearing the same floral nightgown as Sue but it was plastered to her body with sweat and worry. Mary Jane had picked the room that was central to all the others, no more than a door down from Ben and May and insight of both Rebecca's and Jarvis's doors. It was the officers quarters, with a large bed, desk and a private bathroom.

"Do you know if you've ever been hypnotized before?" Sue asked.

"Not that I know of." Mary Jane said. She fidgeted.

"Just relax." Sue said sitting down beside her. She took a spoon she had taken from the kitchen and used her powers to suspend it over Mary Jane's eyes. "Relax and listen."

An hour later Sue left Mary Jane's room. Mary Jane had not been hypnotized. Sue had been pretty sure of that, with the threat of her children to hold over her the TaskMaster would have no need to hypnotize her.

_But I had to be sure,_ Sue thought. _And so did she. I'm sure she's been wondering about it. It can be hell when you're missing part of your life. I've had it happen to me too many times. Mesmero, the Wizard, the Orb..._

Sue entered her room and lay down on the bed. It was strange not to feel Jan next to her. She lay in the dim gloom given off from the bathroom light and drifted in and out of her memories.

_Chloroformed, drugged, tied up, chained up, put in someone else's body... always rescued, always winning in the end. Barely! God and then going back for more! How many times did I end up naked in some dungeon even before the Sentinels? God the month I spent in Atuma's harem! The comic books glossed a lot of it over, but it happened... I wonder if any of those comics survived? Will that be the only thing that survives? Just a few drawings in a few books... That's not fair..._

Sue reached over and felt for Jan. It took her only moments to wake up and realize that Jan was gone. She lay in bed a little while longer and then sighed and got up. She walked through the corridor quietly until she came to May's door. Sue concentrated and the door turned invisible. Inside the lights were dim. A shrunken Jan slept next to May's favorite doll. May's arm was around them both, holding them to her side. Jan was wearing the same flowered nightgown as the doll.

Sue sighed, let the door turn visible again and stepped away. The sound of crying stopped her and she looked at the door to Rebecca's room. The light was on, the door open a crack. Inside Mary Jane was sitting with Rebecca on the bed. She was hugging the girl who was sobbing quietly.

"Even if you had shot a few of them it wouldn't have made a difference." Mary Jane was saying.

_Dealing with the rapes at last, _Sue thought. She moved on quietly and headed toward the dining room. Jarvis had a smattering of Kree at his command, and had at last deciphered the food machines. That they had been programmed for Earth food in case of prisoners was an added bonus. He had, "For the children", stocked a fridge with ice-cream and cake. Sue felt the need for some of that now.

She stopped at the entrance to the dinning room and listened. Jarvis and Ben were in there, and Jarvis was teaching him how to play poker. Sue listened for a few minutes, remembering how Ben Grimm had taught Franklin. Then she walked quietly away.

Once back in her room Sue hugged a pillow to her chest, curled into a ball and forced herself to sleep.

"Hypnotized?" Rebecca demanded hotly.

Sue, Mary Jane and Rebecca were in Rebecca's room. It was an hour past Ben and May's bedtime. Rebecca had chosen one of the larger officers quarters. She had answered the door wearing a blue T shirt and a pair of panties, making her look like the teenager she was.

"Ben and May were both put under hypnosis in school." Sue said. "To gain information and to start a conditioning process to make them hate mutants. You might have been too."

"But I'd remember if I didn't remember... I mean..."

Rebecca sat down on the bed and Mary Jane sat next to her.

"The tricks a pro can play on the mind are hard to spot." Sue said. "Trust me, I know. The Fantastic Four once spent nearly three months as slaves to the PsychoMan and the whole time we thought we were his creations."

"But I don't hate mutants or anything like that." Rebecca said.

"The anti-mutant stuff is the Greys work." Mary Jane said. "But the TaskMaster or one of your teachers may have been doing it on their own. Becca it's better to be sure. Sue put me under and I'm ok."

Rebecca swallowed and looked at Sue.

_You've got to trust me, _Sue said wondering if it would have been better to wait until they knew each other more. Ben and May had been children, but Rebecca was older. _Still, if she's been under once I won't have any trouble._

"You'll be here the whole time?" Rebecca asked grabbing Mary Jane's hand.

"I won't leave." Mary Jane said. "And I promise you'll remember everything."

Rebecca looked down and then looked up at Sue.

"Ok, I guess. Better to know." She was trying to be brave but failing. "What do I do?"

"Lay down." Sue said. "And try to get comfortable."

Sue walked over and dimmed the light. Then she went back over and sat on the bed. Rebecca was laying at attention. Mary Jane sat next to her and tried not to look worried.

"Ok." Sue said calmly. "This will take a while." Bending over she held up a shiny rock that Ben had found sticking out of one of the quinjet's wheels.

"Ok." Rebecca said. She swallowed again and tried to take a normal breath.

"Now just look at the stone." Sue said quietly. "Sleep!" Sue shouted suddenly whipping the stone past Rebecca's eyes.

The result was instant. Rebecca's eyes closed and her body relaxed.

"What the hell?" Mary Jane snapped, nearly leaping off of the bed in fright.

"There are a lot of ways to put someone under." Sue said, placing the stone on the bed. "Rebecca was too scared to go quietly."

"Oh." Mary Jane said, slowly trying to calm herself down.

Sue looked at Rebecca. She lay on the bed, her body relaxed now and her figure showing through the thin fabric of the T-shirt, her breasts were large and the nipples almost poked through the fabric. She was older than Sue had first guessed and Sue wondered if Dr. Strange's teleportation spell had slowed all of their growth rates.

_Or maybe it's been so long since I've seen anyone besides Jan and guards I just don't know anymore, _Sue thought.

"Rebecca." Sue said with as much force in her voice as she could manage. "You are not asleep, you know that. You are in a trance. You can hear my voice and you will do what I say. Do you understand?"

"Yes." Rebecca said quietly.

"Good. Now I want you to go back to the last time you were in a trance. Ignore any instructions you were given then. Tell me what happened."

"I was at Bobbies house." Rebecca said. "She asked me over to help her with math. When I got there she and Tracy and Melvin grabbed me, wet cloth on my face...my head gets fuzzy... they started to take off my clothes..."

Rebecca was sweating and suddenly she reached out and grabbed Mary Jane's hand.

"I don't want them too! Melvin's hand is between my legs, he's reaching INSIDE me! I want them to stop, my head feels funny, Tracy and Bobbie are kissing me... I don't want them to kiss me... I can stop them, I feel power in my fingers, I throw that power at them... I miss... the tv explodes! I have power! I can be like my mother!"

"What happened then?" Sue asked

"They put a blindfold on me, I can't see, they tie my arms behind my back, can't see to focus energy... I'm tired, I... blackness, I'm asleep..."

"Go on." Sue told her.

"I hear a voice, the TaskMaster. I'm awake and I hear him talking, shouting, telling the family he wanted me left alone... I feel a pain in my arm and I'm asleep again. I wake up, looking at a woman on a television screen. She's in chains. Old woman, white hair, her eyes... her eyes stare at me... I can hear her in my mind, I can feel her hiding my powers... making me hate my powers... telling me... she's telling me that I am worthless, that I... I can't do anything... I can't fight back..."

"The White Queen." Sue said softly.

"I go to sleep." Rebecca said. "She makes me go to sleep. I wake up in Bobbies house, I don't remember anything... I go home..."

"Rest Rebecca." Sue said.

Rebecca's body seemed to collapse into the matress and Sue motioned Mary Jane over to one side.

"Explains a lot." Sue said. "That's why the TaskMaster didn't do anything to her. She's too valuable."

"Who was the White Queen?" Mary Jane asked.

"A telepath, a mutant. From the sound of it she's a slave now."

"Bobbie, Tracy and Melvin. They were her best friends, her only friends really. They slept over at our house a week ago." Mary Jane looked at Rebecca. "What do we do now?"

"What you promised." Sue said sadly.

Together they walked over to the bed. Mary Jane sat next to Rebecca and took her hand. Sue sat on the other side of the bed.

"Rebecca." Sue said. "The trance is over. When I touch your forehead you'll wake up, you'll remember everything. You won't obey any of those instructions that the woman with the white hair gave you ever again."

Sue hesitated as she reached for Rebecca's head. Then she took a deep breath and lightly touched her finger to Rebecca's brow.

Rebecca's eyes shot open and for an instant there was confusion in them. Then rage, then sadness and finally a calm Sue hadn't seen before. Without a word the young woman sat up and looked at her hand. A blue white energy flowed from her fingers and formed itself into a ball of energy. She threw the ball at a chair near the bathroom. The ball grew to envelop the chair and when it did so energy crackled in the room. Suddenly the chair exploded into dust.

"I..." Rebecca started to speak. "I have powers?" She looked at Mary Jane and started to cry. "But Bobbie, and Tracy... Melvin... oh God! I thought they were my friends! How could they do that to me?"

While Mary Jane hugged and tried to comfort Rebecca Sue walked over to the remains of the chair. It had been a metal chair with no padding and now it was dust. Or not dust, Sue picked up a bit of the remains with her fingers. More like clay. She guessed that somehow Rebecca had changed the chair's molecular make up.

Quietly Sue stood up and went to help Mary Jane.

Children still need to play. Even in her darkest times Sue had never forgotten that. They also need someone to keep an eye on them. This day that was Sue's turn. The front of the main building had become the de-facto playground and training area. Every day Rebecca practiced with the shield, or learned to fight from Jarvis or Sue. Ben joined the fighting lessons as well, but May refused. It wasn't because of the hypnosis. After long weeks of daily sessions and time spent playing with Jan May was free of that. It was simply that the girl had decided fighting was wrong and that was that. Sue had to settle for teaching her only non-violent defense moves. It bothered Mary Jane. It scared the hell out of Sue.

"Yes!" Rebecca shouted as the shield rebounded off of the target crates. A few seconds later Sue heard her gasp as the shield flew back and hit her in the stomach.

"I did it." Rebecca said as Sue helped her up.

"One half point." Sue said.

"What?"

"One of the rules of the fight Rebecca." Sue said. "You don't celebrate until two days after the fight is done."

"Why two days?" May asked.

"Because two days is usually the time it takes to tell whether you've really won. I can't tell you how many times I've seen a hero recover because the villain paused to gloat."

The words sunk in, Sue could tell that from the looks on their faces. It was Ben who asked the question Sue didn't want to hear.

"What about the Sentinels? How come they won?"

"Good planning, surprise." Sue said. "They knew where to hit us, how to hit us, when to hit us. In any battle intelligence about the enemy is important."

"But you were so powerful." Ben protested.

_How could we loose, _Sue finished for him. _I could go through each battle and tell you how and why, but I'm not going to do that to you._

"No one's perfect." Sue said. "The Sentinels are robots, they don't gloat, they aren't even alive. They are like your video game." She led them over to the wall. It was straight up, flat and perfect for the training exercise game Sue had come up with. Behind her Sue could hear Rebecca grunting as she threw the shield again.

Sue had to smile as she saw Rebecca work out with the shield. The revelation that she had powers, and the reversal of the White Queen's mental programming had freed Rebecca from a lot of her guilt and fear. Her powers were, as Sue had guessed, much like her mothers. But where the Scarlet Witch had cast hex sphere's that altered probability, Rebecca concentrated the energy into balls. Within those balls she could transmute one substance into another. Time and training would allow her to choose what substance would come from the transformation. Seeing her explore her powers reminded Sue of Franklin's own tortured route to his powers. Sue hoped she could train Rebecca better.

"All ready Sue." Jan said flying over to her. Jan had improved over the past few weeks, she still had the mind of a child, but her mood swings had grown less. She was sleeping with May every night now, something Sue had slowly gotten used to. Often at night Sue still woke up and stretched her hand out for Jan, only to remember a moment later that she was with someone else. That hurt, as much as Sue tried to deny it. But she felt that May needed Jan more, and forced herself not to feel jealous. Sometimes she succeeded. Jan had also learned not to change clothes in front of Ben. Between May and Jan they had perfected the art of sewing small costumes, and Jan was wearing one now. Thought little more than a white string bikini it also boasted a blue fringe. Jan rang the little bell she was carrying.

"Ok, opposite sides." Sue said. Ben walked over to one side of the wall while May walked over to the other. "Blindfolds."

Both children took strips of cloth out of their pockets and put them on.

"Ready." Ben called.

"Ready." May echoed.

"Remember Jan, no giggling this time." Sue said.

"Ok." Jan said giggling. She flew up to a random spot on the wall.

"Go." Sue called out.

Jan rang the bell for about 3 seconds and then silenced it. Both children leapt onto the wall and started to crawl around, looking for her. Jan giggled of course, Sue knew she would. In about 2 minutes Jan would move, ring the bell again and wait.

The sight of May crawling around on the wall brought another small smile to Sue's face. For the first week or so after Sue had first introduced the game May could only do it for a short time. Then she would walk away sullenly and find someplace to cry. Occasionally she would have a tantrum and would have to wear herself down before anyone could get near her. Ben was puzzled by the behavior, but Sue told him it was just a "girl" thing, and like all small boys he accepted that. He accepted it for Rebecca as well when she turned moody at times.

For a while after that night both May and Rebecca slept with Mary Jane. Rebecca came to grips with it sooner, Sue suspected the reason for that was the training. Her anger powered her to get into shape. In her mind Rebecca was well on her way to becoming what her parents were. Sue had no doubt that she was designing a costume and choosing a name.

May was different. Where Rebecca turned outward May turned inward, drawing pictures, reading books, Sue was amazed how quickly May picked up the Kree language. Gradually, with Sue and Mary Jane working to undo the hypnotic conditioning, and with Jan's near constant company, May had gotten used to her powers again. Now the score between her and her brother was nearly even and she laughed as much as he did.

"Who's winning?" Mary Jane asked as she and Jarvis walked up to Sue.

"Tied." Sue said. "You have news?"

"We need to talk." Mary Jane said.

"Give them about another half hour Jarvis?" Sue asked.

"Very good Mrs. Richards." Jarvis said.

"Some day he's going to call me "Sue" and I'll die of shock." Sue said as she and Mary Jane walked into the control room.

"He's been with us for years and he's never called me anything but "Mrs. Parker." Mary Jane said. "Some times the kids tease him about it."

The control room had been transformed. No longer a model of Kree military efficiency it had become a combination family room and art gallery. Mary Jane would watch Jan and May play while she worked, when Sue was training Rebecca and Jarvis was teaching Ben to box. Consequently there were dolls scattered on the floor and May's drawings were taped on the windows. Sue had spent time here as well, usually after everyone was asleep, going through the Kree planet database, looking for a new home. So far she had found only 4 planets that looked promising, and that was according to data at least 20 years out of date.

Mary Jane sat down and tapped a few buttons. Weeks of practice had moved her past her fear of the machinery.

"It took a while, but I got the hang of how to search for what I needed. I have figured out why there is no real resistance to the Sentinels."

A map of the United States, Canada and Mexico appeared. Red dots covered nearly all of it.

"This is from a Grey High Council Report." Mary Jane said. "The red dots are where anti-Sentinel protest took place."  
"Impressive." Sue said.

"Deadly." Mary Jane corrected her. "The procedure was the same for each protest. Some Grey's would go into town, under cover, distribute leaflets and organize. They would bring everyone together for a protest rally, then as the rally was going on, Sentinel robots would surround the area and gradually seal it off. Once they were done the Grey's would leave, usually by helicopter, and the robots would kill everyone."

"Bait them in and kill them." Sue said. "A perfect plan. And with the Grey's controlling the press..."

"They didn't stop there." Mary Jane said. "Aside from the press they had searches set up on all computer bulletin boards, even the private ones, and telephone activity between cities was randomly monitored. They let that be known."

"What about the military?" Sue asked.

"Communications lock down." Mary Jane said. "They had no idea what was going on at first, and the President was still in charge of the military, some wanted to fight, but others held them back. In the meantime the Sentinels or the Greys took the heavy weapons that could have fought against them. The confusion went on for at least a year. By then no city in the US, Mexico or Canada hadn't had at least one protest massacre. When some of the military acted there were battles, but once the president was gone there was no central authority that anyone really took seriously."

"Hence the mini-empires that have sprung up." Sue said.

"Doctor Strange's spell shot us forward." Mary Jane said. "I had no idea this had happened."

"So most of the people who would have fought back were murdered." Sue said.

"It's worse than that." Mary Jane said and her voice took on a tinge of despair. She pushed a button and a page come on the screen. It bore the Grey's letterhead and was titled: "Enforced Attitude Adjustment in Civilized Areas."

"May isn't alone." Mary Jane said. "All kindergarten children in the major cities are hypnotized now, just like she was. In five more years it will be all cities. It's an open secret that no one talks about, but from the reports I've read only a few don't know what happens. Once you're in second grade a psychological test is given every year until you graduate high school. If you fail the test, if you still have "dangerous mutant sympathies" three times in a row you are reported to the Sentinels."

Mary Jane punched another button and a sleek black robot appeared. No more than four feet high, faceless, seamless it gave off enough evil even through it's image to make Sue's hair stand on end.

"This is a Silent Sentinel. If you fail the test this comes to where you live. It comes in the middle of the night. The entire family is murdered, their bodies disposed off, their possessions destroyed. Any official records of them are destroyed. They are wiped from existence without any warning, any appeal, just here one day, gone the next."

"Government by terror." Sue said. "Very effective as Stalin found out."

"I can't fight this Sue." Mary Jane said and Sue could tell that she was close to tears. "I could fight robots, I could fight the Greys, but I can't fight people who would let their children's minds be poisoned. From what I can tell the people who could have, probably would have joined us are dead. They were killed within two years after the Day. The rest go along to get along and are raising an ignorant hateful generation that terrifies me. I can't fight that Sue, I don't know how. Fix the ships, please, get my children away from here."

Sue laughed, a laugh that turned into a choked off sob. 

"You finally want to go and I can't take you!" she whispered. "I've tried Mary Jane, I can get the ships 99% working, but I can't fix the hyperdrives! I don't know how!"

"You can't fix them?" Mary Jane's astonishment only made Sue laugh more.

"I've known for a week." Sue gasped out between laughs. "I didn't know how to tell you!"

Suddenly Mary Jane started to laugh too. It was a release of tension and for the next few minutes both women laughed, but their laughter was tinged with hysteria.

"We're doomed." Mary Jane said as her laughter finally trailed off.

Sue let her laughter end as well and her eyes seemed to turn inward in thought.

"Like you said, we could hide out here for a while, but for how long? What kind of life is that for us?"

"There were a handful of men who could fix that ship." Sue said thoughtfully. "Reed. Tony Stark. Maybe Hank Pym. A few super criminals."

"They're all dead." Mary Jane said.

"All but one." Sue said. Reaching past Mary Jane she keyed in a sequence. The map changed to a shot of the African continent. Sue spoke a sequence in Kree and it zoomed into a real time shot of a compound. It was a large place, a palace surrounded by high walls.

"What's that?" Mary Jane asked.

"That was where you and your kids were going the day Jan and I found you." Sue said. "The co-ordinates were in the quinjet's computer."

"The Red Skull?" Mary Jane nearly shouted. "Sue you can't be serious."

"Not the skull." Sue said. "But while he was talking to his commander I saw him torturing someone on a rack. I didn't get a look at the face but I know the scream. Victor Von Doom is alive Mary Jane. And the only chance we have of getting off of this planet is to rescue him from the Red Skull."

They all gathered in the main planning room, a quiet chamber with chairs set around a large round table. Everyone was silent as Sue explained the situation.

"Wasn't Doctor Doom the green cloak and the mask?" Ben asked.

"He did favor green." Sue said. "But aside from the mask he also wore a suit of armor. He ruled the country of Latveria, infact I heard he was dead, but I know he's alive."

"But the Red Skull..." Rebecca said. "How'd he survive?"

"He has carved out his own little kingdom in Africa." Sue said. She touched a control and a hologram of a part of Africa appeared on the table. They had a birds eye view of the land. "From what Mary Jane and I have managed to put together the Skull maintains his kingdom by running a huge portion of the black market. Drugs are grown, shipped somehow, we are not sure how, to the rest of the world, and his only rival is Baron Zemo, who controls a kingdom on the other side of the continent. The two kingdoms periodically raid each other."

"The Skull and Zemo alive while my parents are dead." Rebecca said bitterly. "Great."

"How can such mean men rule anyplace?" May asked. "I wouldn't take their orders."

"Not everyone is as good as you are dear." Mary Jane said.

"Bad men are bullies." Jan said.

"Rescuing Dr. Doom will not be easy Mrs. Richards." Jarvis said. "The Red Skull will not live in a place easily breached."

"No, it won't be easy." Sue agreed. "As a matter of fact it will be risky, but Doom is the only one I can think of who can fix the hyperdrive on the ships."

"But will he?" Rebecca asked. "He was a bad guy, why would he help us?"

"Victor Von Doom lives, or lived, by a code of honor." Sue said. "I'll simply make his helping us a condition of getting him out of there. To sweeten the pot I'll throw in this base and one of the Kree ships. He'll help us if he is able."

"This will take all of us working together." Mary Jane said. "Sue plans to use one of the Kree ships to get in and out, and it will take all of us to man the ships."

"We don't know how to use the ships." Ben protested.

"We'll learn." Jarvis said. "A base like this would have simulators available."

"It does." Sue said.

"Ok." Rebecca said. "But how do we do it?"

"The Red Skull is a supervillain of the old school." Sue said. She adjusted the display and a view of the Skull's compound appeared. It was a wide area surrounded by a stone wall 80 feet high and twenty feet wide that bristled with gun emplacements. Inside the wall was a complex of barracks, stables, motor pools and parade grounds. In the center of it all was a three-story palace that resembled a gothic church.

"He always has a way out."

As Sue manipulated the controls a series of red lines appeared leading from the palace out in four directions.

"These are hidden escape tunnels." Sue said. "Well hidden, but not from the type of sensors the Kree use." She indicated the tunnel leading north. "This one leads to an underground hanger located here."

"Isn't that a lake?" Rebecca asked.

"It looks like one." Sue said. "The hanger is just at the edge of it. That's my way in."

"You're going in alone?" Jarvis asked.

"NO!" Jan shouted. "Jan go too."

"I'm going in alone." Sue said. "Jan needs to be in the ship shooting."

"But... Jan... always with Sue." Jan said and a bit of the old terror came to her face. May put her hand on Jan's arm and Sue tensed at the contact.

"Not this time Jan." Sue said gently.

_No one but me, _Sue thought. _Not with the Skull, especially not Rebecca or Jan. Besides, you have May now Jan, you'll be ok even if I don't come back._

"This is how it will happen." Sue said. "One of the ships will lift off, we'll take her off the planet and into a deep lunar orbit, if we come out from the dark side of the moon anyone seeing us should think we came from space. We'll use the magnetic interference caused by the poles to lift off without being tracked from here, it worked for the Kree, it should work for us."

"Shock!" Ben said exited. "We're going into space!"

"Yes we are." Sue said. "From space we'll come in and zoom along in an orbital track that will take us from the North Pole, across the equator and into Africa. At that point I'll eject in a life pod. When I get to the right altitude I'll eject from the pod, using my force field to get down to the ground. The pod will land here."

"That's right on the border between Zemo's land and the Red Skull's land." Rebecca said.

"Right. Both sides will track and it and go for it, that should draw some forces away from the Skull's palace. I'll use my force field to glide to the lake, get into the Skull's compound and find Doom. While I'm doing that you will make one more orbit and come in on the same path. When you get over the area the pod went down in you start firing. By then the Red Skull's troops and Zemo's troops will be in the area and if they aren't already fighting each other pick a side and lay into one of them, preferably the bigger side. That should start them fighting against each other. Then make an announcement in Kree that;" The fugitive should surrender", and just start shooting randomly into the jungle. You keep doing that until you get my signal, then you come and get me. With any luck Zemo will think that the Red Skull got to the person in the pod and that person was rescued. That should be the story the rest of the world accepts as well. The Red Skull will have to deal with that. We'll take the ship out into a deep orbit, wait a week or two, and then once we are sure that no one has found the base in Antarctica, we'll go back."

"After Doom fixes the ships what then?" Rebecca asked.

"We leave." Mary Jane said.

"But you said..."

"Rebecca." Mary Jane said and there was more sorrow than firmness in her voice. "We leave."

After a moment Rebecca nodded.

Three weeks later the ship Ben had christened "Hero's Ark" lay in orbit around the moon. Ben and Jarvis both agreed that the Kree had made a mistake in not naming the ships.

"Not proper at all." Jarvis had said.

"Bad form." Ben had echoed.

So they had named the ship they were going to use. It was Mary Jane's idea to have a naming ceremony and minor party before they started training. Sue actually enjoyed herself during the party and she could tell it had lifted everyone's spirits. Sue had expected to lead the training, but they all found that Jarvis was better at it. It was a surprise for Sue to learn that Jarvis had served in the British Navy, but it was welcome news. He wouldn't tell her the exact nature of his missions, but Sue could tell from the way he acted that Jarvis had seen combat.

Jarvis took the pilots seat, Mary Jane the co-pilots, Rebecca and Ben each had a gun to handle. May was in charge of communications, the former navigator position, and Jan was in charge of the scanners.

"It's beautiful." Mary Jane said as they gazed at the Earth. Everyone else was getting in a last sleep session before the start of it all. Sue and Mary Jane had woken early and walked onto the flight deck.

"It is." Sue agreed. "Picnics on the moon, lunch on Mars."

"What?"

"That's what Reed used to tell me we'd be doing by now." Sue said. "That's why he designed the pocket-rocket, the ship that took me into space the first time. Reed was so proud of that ship, it was going to be the first of a fleet."

"What happened?"

"The Fantastic Four happened." Sue said. "It was years before Reed was able to figure out that the cosmic rays we passed through were a freak accident, and how to protect travelers against them. But by the time he did the space program had waned, the money wasn't there. He had the knowledge, but the government kept saying no. Everytime he would start to make headway another supervillain would show up and the resources had to go in another direction. He kept saying we'd do it sooner or later, we had time after all."

For the first time since they had met Mary Jane saw a tear on Sue's face. She put her hand on the other woman's arm but Sue shook her head. She wiped the tear away and closed her eyes for a few moments.

"If I don't make it tell Jarvis to take the ship to the moon." Sue said. "He knows where the Blue Area is. The Watcher lives there; he might send all of you someplace safe. He's always had a soft spot for the Fantastic Four. If not, well the Blue Area will be safe for a while."

"And you?"

"If I don't make it I don't come back Mary Jane."

The escape pod was a small egg-shaped capsule that had everything a Kree operative needed to survive a crash landing. But it had not been designed for comfort. Sue had been in it for over ten minutes, watching the altimeter reading. She'd passed most of the danger zone, but not all of it. Sue could glide if she maintained her force field in the right pattern, but there were limits and the higher up she was when she bailed out the more chance there was of being picked up by a scanner.

The black stealth suit she was wearing was Kree built and the fabric felt alien on her skin, a cross between wool and a terrycloth towel. On her hips were two Kree guns, in her boots were two large and four small knives, and on her back was Captain America's shield.

When the altimeter told Sue she was low enough she cracked the hatch and released the straps. The streaming wind did the rest, taking her out of the capsule like she was a child's toy. For a few minutes the wind simply tossed Sue around, then she got her bearings, turned invisible and surrounded herself with a force field.

With the field acting like a pair of wings Sue sailed away from the capsule, going over the thick jungle and heading into the setting sun. The timing wasn't the best choice. At night being invisible was less of an advantage, but it would take her a few hours to get to the lake, and the capsule would be found before then. Sue needed the Skull's men to search long and hard, and night would help that.

Despite the danger Sue could not deny that she was enjoying the flight, or that scene before her was one of primal beauty. The jungle was a lush green carpet beneath her, and the colors produced by the setting sun were breathtaking. The air smelled of life, a warm fresh smell that Sue had missed in Antarctica.

"Capsule down." May's voice crackled in Sue's earphone.

Sue nodded. There was no need to respond. Putting aside her feelings the Invisible Woman glided down toward the jungle.

The African jungle had not gotten any safer since the last time Sue had traveled through it. Then she had been with Reed and Ben, working to find the headquarters of the group known as "They". The Black Panther had been with them as well. For once Sue did not turn the memories aside for they told her where to tread and where not to tread. She moved quietly past beast that would have at the least attacked her and at the worst alerted the guards.

And there were guards, as Sue knew there would be. The Red Skull had grown up in Europe in the 1930's. To a young boy of that era movies were the only way out. That was why Sue wasn't surprised when she saw the lake. It was artificial, a lake out of a Tarzan movie, complete with crocodiles and exotic birds. All of it watched by camera's, patrolled by grim faced guards, and watched over by what looked like the periscope of a submarine in the center of the lake. It had taken Sue three hours to get to the lake after she had landed. The Jungle was pitch dark but Sue kept invisible anyway. She walked carefully and kept a force field around herself at all times. The lake was semi-circular and on the far side was a large plantation house. The porch of the house stretched across the side of the lake. It was set high off the water and Sue knew that under that porch was the hanger.

Her invisible force field lifted her up and across the water so quietly that not even the birds in the water beneath her were disturbed. Sue set herself down on the porch and then climbed over the side. The smell of diesel fumes guided her to an opening in the fencing and she slipped inside.

Inside the hanger were a sea-plane, a few motorboats and a submarine being loaded.

_An underground river maybe, _Sue thought. _That would explain how he gets things out of the country, but why smuggle like that? There hasn't been anyone to bother him down here in years. That he makes the stuff must be known to everyone in Europe, they don't seem to mind._

Putting the question away for the moment Sue again used her force field to make it across the water unseen. A few bored guards were all that was inside the place. From the water the hanger opened into a long tunnel that was 20 feet high and nearly 60 feet wide. It went back as far as Sue could see. She moved along it, keeping and eye out for camera's or motion sensors. Finding a few Sue avoided them and kept on going. As she did so she passed more planes, some modern, some old, and a drug-processing laboratory. Black children, some as young as 6 sat at a table and worked under the stern eyes of guards with whips. Keeping her anger in check Sue moved on. It was obvious to her now that this was no mere escape tunnel. But there was no helping that now.

It took Sue an hour to move down the tunnel. There were more guards, more cameras and some sensors that required her to climb across the ceiling to avoid. Sue did this by projecting a force field over the tunnel like a bridge and moving along it slowly. Her main worry was that one of the guards might stumble into the supports she had to put up, but none did. At last she came to a single door. It was well guarded with machine guns, a metal detector that everyone had to walk through, and multiple cameras. Getting through the door was almost too simple after all the precautions Sue had taken. She simply pressed her back against the wall and edged along it until she was at the doorway. Then she was through it.

It took Sue another hour to find her way through the Red Skull's palace. The place was furnished with the spoils of war. Paintings, fine furniture, and rare works of art were everywhere. Sue stopped at one point, stunned to see the Constitution of the United States, the original that was thought lost when Washington fell, set in a pedestal. The she looked beyond and it and understood. At the foot of the pedestal was a small pen of deadly snakes. The snakes moved through the bones of dead men wearing the uniform of the United States military. Controlling herself Sue moved on.

As Sue had told them all, the Red Skull was a supervillain from the old school. She had a good idea where the dungeon would be and she was right. The room that led to it was a surprise, not in content, but in scale. If the Red Skull worshiped anything in his life it was the person of Adolph Hitler. He proved that with a 20 foot high statue of Hitler. The statue was pure gold, set on a marble base and the rest of the room held images and relics of the nazi party. The statue was set in the center of a red swastika painted on the floor. The rest of the floor was black. Swords and spears, all of them bloodstained, hung on the walls. Anyone else might have guessed it a museum; Sue knew it to be a temple. Or rather a combination temple and playroom. A blood stained rack was set in front of the statue. On the other side of the room was a door made of iron bars. A person was on the rack, and the Red Skull sat in an ivory chair in front of him. He was wearing a black and gold uniform, with white gloves. The red skull mask was still on his face, revealing only his eyes. They were old eyes, Sue saw. And his hand shook slightly as it held a whip. A nude black girl in chains knelt next to the skull, holding a tray with a bottle of wine and a crystal glass. She too bore the marks of the whip.

The Red Skull struck out with the whip and it hit the back of the man on the rack. He groaned in pain and the Skull laughed.

"After all these years you can only groan for me herr Doctor." The Skull took a drink from the wineglass. "Perhaps it is at last time to show you mercy and let you beg for death."

"I will not beg." Victor Von Doom said quietly. Sue was amazed at the voice. It was said barely loud enough to hear, without any of the strength of the Doom she had known.

_I never sounded that bad did I? _Sue wondered.

"Another ten years perhaps." the Red Skull said. Once again he lashed out with the whip.

Sue stood for twenty minutes, waiting and watching. She could tell from the way the Skull soon tired of the whipping and turned his attention to the wine that something was wrong with him. His hands shook and there was more uniform than man in his bearing. Doom was rail thin and covered with burn and whip scars. His armor was long gone the former monarch wore only a pair of torn pants. But it was his face that surprised Sue the most. Apart from the dirt and the long straggly hair and beard, it was not scarred or damaged, save for a scar under his right eye.

_Is that what you always hid under your mask Victor? _Sue asked silently. _Is that why you hounded Reed and the rest of us to hell and back so many times? That little scar?_

Finally her earphone crackled with May's voice.

"Starting attack now."

A few minutes later a guard came into the room. He paused to kneel before the statue, then came and gave the nazi salute to the Red Skull.

"My leader, the alien ship is returning."

The Red Skull stood up and all traces of weakness were gone. Or at least, that was the impression he managed to give. Sue saw the slight shaking of his hands before he clasped them behind his back.

"Guard him." the Skull ordered, indicating Doom. He and the servant girl left.

Once she was sure the Skull was not coming back Sue moved. The guard suddenly started to claw at his face, gasping for air he sank to the ground. He twitched for a few minutes and then lay still. Doom's head raised and he looked around. In the blue eyes Sue saw the same curiosity she had seen so often in Reed.

_They could have been brothers, _Sue thought. _What a world that would have been!_

"Hello Victor." She said.

"Susan?" Doom's voice betrayed confusion and surprise, a far cry from the controlled voice Sue had so often heard.

"I'm here to offer you freedom Victor, in exchange for your word of honor to me and my friends. Agree to help us leave this planet alive in our ship and you will leave this place now."

"You have my word." Doom said and for a moment there was some of the old iron in his voice.

With quick movements Sue un-strapped his wrist and ankles. Doom fell to the floor and she let him rest for a moment. The she placed a gun on the floor and let it turn visible.

"Pick it up." Sue said. "We'll both be invisible until we get out of here, but I'll be holding your hand."

"Wait." Doom said picking up the gun. He stood up and Sue could see his body fully for the first time. His face may have held only one scar, but Doom's body easily matched hers. "There are others we must free."

"How many?" Sue asked, following him as he walked toward the barred door.

"Three others." Doom said. "You know them."

Unlocking the door he pushed it open and Sue followed him down a short corridor. There were four cells, two on either side. In the first one Doom opened was a nude blonde woman. She wore an inhibitor colar but her body was not scared.

"Namorita?" Sue asked.

"Doom?" the woman, asked. Thick iron chains went from her wrist to the wall and Sue saw that heat lamps were focused on her.

"The day of our liberation has come." Doom said. He walked over and unlocked her chains.

"It's a trick." a voice said behind Sue. "It's always a trick."

"YOU!" Sue hissed and let herself become visible.

"Sue!" Namorita gasped out. "Alive?"

"And with friends." Doom said. He deactivated the collar and tossed it to the floor. He led her out of the cell and started toward the other. "Come we must..."

"No." Sue said, throwing up a force field in front of the cells. Both Doom and Namorita were taken back by both her appearance and the hatred in her voice. "They stay."

"You can't leave them with the Red Skull!" Namorita said starting forward. Sue turned and looked at her and Namorita stopped dead at the sight of her face.

"I'd leave them in hell if I could." Sue said. "Since I can't leaving them here is the next best thing."

"Sue," Namorita said, "What ever they did, or you think they did look at them; they've paid for it."

"At least kill us." the blue skinned woman pleaded. "Please give us that small mercy."

Sue looked at her. Mystique: one time leader of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. Her deep red hair was streaked with white. The yellow eyes that had once glowed with fanatical power were dim. Her skin hung loosely on bones that Sue could tell were brittle. Her nipples had been pierced and a chain running from rings in them to a ring in her nose was the only thing they held them up. Above her breast the word: "Mutant" had been burned into her skin.

_Did I look that bad four months ago? _Sue Wondered. _Has she been through what I went through? Did she deserve it? She started all of this! She pushed the bolder down the hill, should I care that she was crushed under it as well?_

"Sue?" Namorita asked.

Sue walked over and bent down to look at Mystique. The way the other woman cringed allowed her to make the decision. Mystique was not afraid of getting hurt. She was afraid of not making enough of a show to impress the attacker with how much she was scared of him. It was a trick only someone who had been through worse than hell would know. Reaching over Sue turned off the inhibitor collar and removed it.

"She'll come and we'll decide what do with her later." Sue said, freeing Mystique's wrist from the chains. The woman looked at her wrist in astonishment, then with trembling hands reached to undo the chains that went from her breasts to her nose.

"It's not a universal pardon Victor." Sue said dangerously as he helped Fury out of his cell.

"It is all of us or none Susan, thus was the pact we made years ago."

Sue growled and looked at Fury. His body too bore the marks of long captivity and into his chest was burned the word:"SPY". His one eye turned away from her.

"Alright." Sue said after a few seconds. "I'll get everyone out. After that we'll talk."

The gunfire came an instant later. Sue was ready for it. She had been listening to the guards in the outer chamber even as the debate had been going on. The shots bounced off of her force field.

"Come out now!" The voice of the Red Skull called. "And I may grant one of you a quick death."

"Everyone form up in a single line behind me." Sue ordered. She keyed in her communicator. "May?"

"Right here Sue." May's voice came over the speaker. "We're heading your way now."

"Good, take out the guns and be ready over the south part of the complex. Any damage?"

"Nope. Jan says Hi."

"Tell her hi from me. I've got 3 more besides Doom."

"Ok."

Sue looked back at the former captives. Namorita was supporting Mystique while Doom was nearly carrying Nick Fury.

"We're going to be invisible." Sue said. "So move slow and stay directly behind me."

Concentrating Sue started to walk. The shield held in front of her.

There were five guards and the Red Skull himself waiting for them. He stood with a raygun in his hand and fired it the moment Sue stepped out of the doorway. Sue was waiting for the shot, she had seen the dust on the floor that would betray where she was. There had no doubt been cameras hidden in the outer room, Sue had counted on them not knowing she had realized that. The shield took the beam and reflected it back to the floor at his feet. There was an explosion and Sue's own Kree gun stunned the other guards while they were recovering.

_Not to many guards. Diversion worked,_ Sue thought. _Too bad they'll know it was me, but once we get off the planet it won't matter. Besides, I'm dead, everyone knows that._

Sue let them all turn visible and they walked toward the exit. The Red Skull lay on the floor, gasping in pain and clutching at a badly mangled leg.

"I swore I would see you thus one day you crawling worm." Doom said walking over to him. He did not let go of Fury. "Now you can limp around for the rest of your life and wait upon the full vengeance of Victor Von Doom!"

"Vengeance?" Sue shouted. "Vengeance? You think I'm going to let you play your stupid pompous games again? Do you think that's why I risked my life to get you out of here?"

Walking over to the wall Sue picked up a bloodstained broadsword. Before the stunned eyes of the former captives she stalked over the fallen Skull and brought it high over her head.

For as long as she lived Sue would not forget the look on the Red Skull's face. The mask conveyed his feelings perfectly. It was almost comical the look of accusation in his eyes. Sue almost expected him to shout that she was breaking the rules, that he was the Red Skull, that she was one of the good guys.

Sue brought the sword down with all her might and it sliced through his neck cleanly. As his head rolled away the last expression the Red Skull's face would ever show was astonishment. It was an astonishment that Sue saw mirrored in the faces of the men and women she had just rescued.

"Victor." Sue said tossing the sword away as she turned to face him. "To hell with vengeance."

...To be continued.


	3. Chapter 3

End of Hope

chapter 3

"Sentinels!"

The word crackled in Sue's ear like a shotgun blast. She tensed and behind her Victor Von Doom, Nick Fury, Namorita and Mystique stopped dead at the change in her bearing.

"How many and where?" Sue asked.

"Five on the ground approaching the palace." May's voice sounded calm in Sue's ear. Sue was grateful that the 12-year old girl had not panicked. "Looks like about 8 in the air. The ones in the air are about five minutes away. The ones on the ground are about 2 minutes from the courtyard."

"Pick us up in the courtyard." Sue said. Turning she pulled a gun from her holster and handed it to Namorita. "Sentinels are heading this way, we have got to get to the courtyard if we're going to make it out of here."

"Mystique can't walk." Namorita said. "Neither can Nick."

"I know." Sue said. Of all of them only she and Namorita had any real strength. Victor Von Doom was, physically at least, a ragged shell of the man Sue had known. His brown hair was long and dirty and a beard covered most of his face. He wore only a torn pair of pants and scars crossed and criss-crossed every inch of his body. Nick Fury, one time director of SHIELD was in worse shape. His one eye looked around confused and the word "SPY" had been burned into his chest. His pants were even more torn than Doom's. Namorita was the only one not marked by some torture, infact she didn't look any older than when Sue had last seen her 14 years before. Namorita stood tall and slim with pointed ears barely visible through long blonde hair. She was nude and aside from marks left by the chains carried no scars. But Sue could tell Namorita was weak from the slow and unsteady way she moved. In her arms she carried a nude woman with white streaked red hair and blue skin. Mystique's all-yellow eyes darted from person to person, place to place, search for a hiding place. Her nude body was covered in scars and she trembled in fear.

They were in the center of the Red Skull's palace. A temple built to honor the memory of Adolph Hitler. The walls were lined with old weapons; useless in the modern firefight they faced. The Skull's lifeless and headless body lay at their feet.

"We will have to fight our way through the guards." Doom said picking up the gun that the Skull had been holding. He handled it well, despite supporting Fury with his other arm.

"Maybe not." Sue said. She slung Captain America's shield onto her back then rushed over to the wall and grabbed a long spear. Then she went over to where the Skull's head had rolled after she had cut it off. Not caring or even noticing the looks that they gave her, Sue stuck the head onto the spear. Then she walked back over to them. The skulls jaw gaped open grotesquely, the tongue sticking out. Some blood dripped down the spear. At a thought from the Invisible Woman a platform of invisible energy appeared bellow them and lifted them a foot off of the ground. Sue started them moving forward.

"I'll keep us invisible, everything except the Red Skull's head. Victor the front of the force field I've erected is open. Shoot through that if you have to. Everyone else just hang on."

The Red Skull's palace had been built as a series of rings. The outer wall was thick and well defended, but the further in you got the less thick the walls became. Sue found that out as she moved them steadily through the palace corridors. The doorways were not direct, forcing them to travel down corridors. At most doorways the sight of the Red Skull's severed head floating in mid-air was enough to get them through. Some guards ran away in terror, others cried in rage and grief, two guards shot themselves. But at others the guards opened fire anyway. To avoid a few of them Doom simply blasted a whole with the ray gun that they had taken from the Red Skull, but that became harder and harder. Soon they were forced to go through each doorway and each doorway was guarded.

"The Sentinels are at the walls." May said in Sue's ear. They had made it too a large dining room with stain glass windows showing nazi Germany it all it's glory. Around a corner ahead of them were a large set of doors and a group of guards. "We slowed down the ones in the air with some long range missile fire though."

"Are the Red Skull's men fighting the Sentinels?" Sue demanded.

"Yea, but the courtyard is a hugely massive firefight, Greys are down there!"

"Hell!" Sue swore. The Greys were a fanatical anti-mutant force that both served and were served by the Sentinel robots.

"We're cut off." Sue said to the rest of them.

"You have an aircraft waiting?" Victor asked.

"A Kree ship!" Sue shouted as the ground started to shake. "It's above us but there are Greys in the courtyard."

"Then instruct your ship to make us a way out!" Doom shouted pointing upward.

"May." Sue said into her communicator. "Can you tell where we are?"

"Yep."

"Tell Rebecca or Ben to blast away the ceiling, then get above the opening and get ready to open the hatch!"

"Everyone get ready!" Sue shouted as she moved them all against the wall and concentrated with all her might to strengthen her force field.

Sue was surprised by what happened next. Instead of a shock blast a solid beam of light cut a circle through the solid stone of the roof. The floor shook as tons of thick grey stone fell and shattered. The sound of breaking glass came seconds after the stones feel. When the dust cleared there was a pile of rubble in the center of the room and a round hole in the ceiling. Only a few of the windows survived.

"Everyone get together!" Sue called as she moved them into the center. Around them a firefight started between a group of the Red Skull's guards and Greys. She tossed the spear with the Red Skull's head to the floor. They huddled together and Sue found herself holding tightly to Nick Fury and Victor Von Doom. Directly above the ceiling was the arrow-shaped Kree ship that Ben Parker called: "Hero's Ark".

Sue concentrated and her invisible platform shot them into the air just as another group of Grey's burst into the room. They fired bullets that bounced off of her force field and rays that did not. Sue felt the angry buzz of a hornet in her ears as the disrupter bolts ate into the hyper-energy of her force field. She gritted her teeth and held on, pushing them higher and faster. Acrid smoke and dust swirled out of their way.

They rose past the roof level and into a vicious fire fight. Grey's fought against the black suits of the Red Skull's palace guard, something that even in her pain and the chaos of the fight Sue found ironic. Both groups shared so much in common; they practiced hate and egotism to a point that was nearly religious, they were natural allies against everything that was good and decent in the world, yet they hated each other.

"Open the cargo hatch now!" Sue shouted when they were only a foot away from the ship. The two sides of the doorway opened and Sue forced them in.

"Close it!" Sue screamed as even more pain was pounded into her head by the disrupter bolts.

"It's closed" Mary Jane said rushing into the cargo area. She turned and shouted: "Jarvis we have them! GO!"

In response to that desperate shout everyone felt the pull of gravity as the ship started to move. Sue let her self breathe for a moment, but the ship shuddered as something hit it.

"Sentinels!" Sue growled and headed toward the flight deck.

"There are about 80 of them!" May shouted. Sue looked over her shoulder at the display screen.

"Shoot them down!" Sue ordered Ben and Rebecca.

"We're trying!" Ben shouted. "We're hitting them but they don't fall!"

The ship rocked again and suddenly Sue found Victor standing beside her.

"Children?" he demanded incredulously.

"Shut up!" Sue shouted as the ship rocked again.

"Their weapons are getting through the shields!" Jan shouted from her co-pilot seat. "One of the atmosphere jets is damaged!"

There was a terror in her voice and Sue could understand why. The Kree ship lifted off the ground by means of an anti-gravity drive, but it used a form of jet engine to move through the atmosphere at any real speed. Once into space chemical reaction thrusters or the main engine took over, either them or the hyperdrive, but in an atmosphere the jets were it.

"We've got more Sentinels coming from the right!" May shouted. "HEY!"

May's protest was caused by Doom lifting her out of the seat.

"Take her!" he ordered handing her to Mary Jane. Mary Jane started to protest but Sue stopped her as Doom sat down and started to operate the panels.

_I hope to God he's as good as he ever was, _Sue thought.

"Jarvis evade them as much as you can!" Sue shouted. She turned to May and Mary Jane. "See if you can get everyone strapped down back there? This is going to be rough."

"Right." Mary Jane said. May gave Doom a sullen look but followed her mother.

"What can you do for us?" Sue asked leaning close to Doom as the ship rocked again.

"I need time." Doom said. "Minutes."

"I'll get you those minutes." Sue said. She concentrated and then gasped in pain as the energy beams that had been hitting the ship hit her force field. But her gambit worked and the ship settled down.

"Cease fire!" Doom shouted.

For a moment there was confusion on the flight deck as Ben and Rebecca looked at him.

"All of you do as he says!" Sue shouted, falling to her knees as another shot hit. Sue's hands clasped her head as if she could protect herself from the mental feedback caused by the energy-to-energy reaction of the rays hitting her force field.

"The Sentinels are using an older version of my own force field." Doom said. Sue heard his voice from far away. She was aware of Mary Jane kneeling beside her and of the other woman's arms around her. "And the beams they are using are a version of the repulser rays used by Iron Man. I must adjust our weaponry and shields to handle these problems."

"Hang on Sue!" Mary Jane said, hugging her tightly. Sue strained to stay awake and keep her force field up even as a red-hot splinter of pain was being driven into her head. She could feel it in her eyes and ears; the pain was like someone was pulling her hair out very slowly one strand at a time.

"Fire now!" Doom ordered.

"Got'em!" Ben shouted a second later.

"Shoot at the ones trying to cut off our escape!" Doom ordered him. "Jarvis there is an opening, adjust your course ten degrees!"

Sue heard the rest of the orders, but barely understood them. Somehow she was on her back and Mary Jane was looking down at her.

"You can drop your force field." Mary Jane was saying.

Sue blacked out before she could comprehend the words.

Sue Richards had long ago learned that there was a difference between sleep and being knocked out. Sleep was a calm restful place where strength could be recovered. Blacking out or being knocked out was like taking refuge from a fire in a block of ice. The type of pain was simply exchanged. Sue hated nothing more than coming too after blacking out, and the shouting didn't help her at all.

"HE KILLED MY PARENTS!" Rebecca was shouting.

"Rebecca calm down!" Mary Jane shouted.

"Hear him out, Please!" Namorita shouted.

Sue opened her eyes. She was lying in the cargo area with a cold compress on her forehead. A worried May was kneeling over her.

"Are you ok?" May asked.

"I'll be fine." Sue lied.

_What the hell, patients are going to say that to her all the time someday anyway, _Sue thought. She took a moment to take a deep breath and try to clear her head. _Come on Sue, you're not out of it yet. You kept Ben and Johny apart._

"Quiet!" Sue shouted and her voice rumbled through the cabin. With May's help she staggered her to feet.

"He killed them." Rebecca said pointing at Nick Fury. Her young face was contorted with bottled up frustration. Rebecca was growing fast and her body showed that in a slight awkwardness of gait and bearing. Her curly brown hair was done in a ponytail but parts of it had escaped and crackled around her head. Deep blue eyes flashed with anger. "I remember him on the monitor screen telling my dad to give up and then the Sentinels broke through the wall and killed my mother and father!"

"Calm down Rebecca." Sue said putting as much force as she could into her voice. "First things first, are we safe?"

"We are at the moment passing the moon." Doom said. He stood by Nick Fury and to his left Namorita sat next to Mystique. Namorita was wearing one of the blue jumpsuits, but Mystique was still naked. Fury was leaning on the wall and Doom for support while Mystique trembled on the floor. "Though no one will explain where we are going."

"I still have your word don't I Victor?" Sue asked.

"You do Susan, but I can not fix this ship without knowing where you intend to take it. The hyperdrive is range dependent, merely fixing it a little will do you no good and fixing it completely may take more time than you have."

_He hasn't lost his touch, _Sue thought and a bit of admiration crept into her. Sue knew what constant torture could do to a person, she had been through it herself, but Doom seemed to have lost none of his knowledge or character. _Which is part of the problem. How far do I trust him? Doom's word used to be an absolute, if you asked Victor's opinion that is, but how he keeps it... No, I can't go down that route right now, the best I can do is keep an eye on him and hope that he has enough mercy not to double cross us._

Sue looked around the cabin. Rebecca was not the only one looking at Nick Fury with anger. Mary Jane was holding Rebecca back, but her face held that anger as well, so did Ben's face. The only thing that seemed to be holding Ben back was a nude Jan who was perched on his shoulder whispering into his ear. May seemed to be the only one who wasn't mad. She had walked over to Mystique and Namorita and handed them glasses filled with water. She did not however give anything to Doom and studiously ignored him.

__

I better clear the air or we'll all kill each other before we get back to Earth!

"Ok." Sue said. "We are going to clear this up right now, I won't have everyone looking over his or her shoulder for the rest of the trip. Jarvis." Sue called. "Can you hear this?"

"Every word Mrs. Richards." Jarvis called back from the flight deck.

"If you have anything to contribute say it when you want to, this involves all of us."

"Is this to be a trial Susan?" Doom asked.

"Sort of." Sue said. "What's going to happen is this, we are going to go around and introduce ourselves, and we are going to give reasons, if any, for what we did. Then we'll decide what to do. Worst comes to worst Nick I'll pop you out of the airlock myself."

They all gave Sue stunned looks at both what she said and the way she said it. But for a moment Sue thought she saw a look of understanding on Doom's face. It was quickly hidden.

__

Ok, just like group therapy, and I did mean it Nick, I don't care what you've been through, I will throw you off of this ship, even if it's only to put you onto the Blue Area of the moon. But you're not the real danger here, Victor is. God look at him! I can see the wheels turning in his head! What have I started?

"I'll start." Sue said. "Everyone knows me anyway. First off; Mystique, you are not in any danger here. You can come with us or go with Namorita, your choice."

"How come?" Rebecca asked. "She was the one in charge of the brotherhood, she started it all."

"She's not to blame." Namorita said, putting her arm around Mystique who had curled up into a ball and pressed herself against the wall at the tone in Rebecca's voice. "Not all the way."

"Rebecca I can understand what you are saying." Sue said. "But Mystique had ideological reasons for what she did." Sue walked over to the blue skinned woman. "None of us may agree with the way she tried to do things, but she was acting out of fear, and believe me she paid for it." Sue bent down and gently reached over and raised Mystiques head. Yellow eyes filled with pain and trepidation looked back at her.

"I don't want pity." Mystique said, but her voice shook and her body trembled.

_You not only want it you're desperate for it, _Sue thought. _But there is still something in there, just like Jan. You'll never be who you were Mystique, but your never going to be a danger to anyone either._

"Look at me Mystique." Sue said calmly. "Do you see pity in my eyes?"

For a moment the pain and the trembling stopped and the mutant seemed to regain a bit of what she had been.

"You know..." She said. Her voice held a pleading tone that tugged at Sue's heart.

"Jan and I both know." Sue said.

Mystique folded herself back into a ball and hugged Namorita who hugged her back.

"I don't get it." Ben said. At 14 he was still small, but solid and wearing a blue jumpsuit from the ships stores. Ben had brown hair and blue eyes, the former topping a round head and the later looking out at the world with curious optimism. "Wasn't she some big time supervillain?"

"The term; "Supervillain" was too easily applied in the years before the rise of the Sentinels." Victor said. "Often by those of limited imagination and intellect."

"Not that it wasn't accurate." Sue said rising and looking at Victor. "For many."

Doom nodded at her and Sue turned away from him, struggling to keep from continuing the banter. She faced Rebecca.

"Mystique was the leader of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, and yes they killed, and attacked and did a lot of damage. But she's been through what Jan and I have been through. What you had a taste of in the desert, and worse. Different people, same thing. That kind of hell washes away a lot of sins."

"I wasn't treated gently either." Nick Fury said in a quiet voice.

"You're a traitor." Rebecca snarled.

"She's right Nick." Sue said turning to face him. "We call it: "The Day." That's when Sentinel robots backed by Greys attacked the Baxter Building, Avengers Mansion and I think the headquarters of the Xmen. The Baxter Building defenses were holding them off, until they shut down. Just before we were forced to run Reed found the cause. A computer virus planted into the mainframe. A virus that could only have been put there by your hand picked computer expert when Reed was consulting on project Wide Awake. The expert you said had top security clearance. We trusted you on that. Without those defenses we were overrun. Reed, Ben and Johny died. Franklin escaped. I was thrown into a mob who nearly beat me to death. Nearby a group of SHIELD agents stood by and did nothing. Not even when the mob raped me."

Sue realized she was shaking with rage and forced herself to calm down. Nick Fury's one eye was focused downward.

"That's the least of what happened to me Nick. I won't tell you the rest. You can see that on my face. But I'm not alone in this." Sue turned to Mary Jane. "This is Mary Jane Parker, wife of Spiderman, these are her children Ben and May. Mary Jane you tell him what happened on the Day."

"It started out tense." Mary Jane said after a moment. Sue could tell she was wondering if her children should be there, but then Mary Jane seemed to realize that there was no protecting them, even as young as they were. She stepped forward as Sue stepped back. "Peter knew something was up, but he couldn't say what it was. He put on the Spiderman costume to look around. He found DareDevil being burned alive by a mob of Greys. When Peter tried to stop them Sentinel robots appeared. That's when Peter realized that the city was crawling with them. Worse the robots and the Greys were backed up by SHIELD troops."

May and Ben both come over to stand by their mother. Mary Jane's voice was strained with the effort to keep her emotions in check.

"You knew who Spiderman really was Mr. Fury." Mary Jane said. "I remember you'd drag him into one mission or another over the years. Peter wasn't happy that you knew, but he trusted you. When he saw the robots and the troops he was scared. He made it back to the apartment just as the Grey's started to swarm the place. His aunt got blasted by a stray shot, but Peter got the rest of us to Avenger's mansion."

"The mansion's defenses weren't as good as the Baxter Buildings, but the Avengers were holding their own. I was in one of the safe rooms with Jarvis, Ben and May. Then the whole place shook and Peter came in with Rebecca. He told us the Helicarrier had attacked the mansion. He got us through the sewers and out, and then we got to Dr. Strange's house in Greenwitch village. There was a mob behind us, Peter shoved us all forward and leapt into them so we could make it."

Both Ben and May were crying and Mary Jane bent down to hug them.

"We weren't safe for long." Mary Jane said. "The Greys had some sort of magic charm that got through Dr. Strange's magic. He opened up a portal and got us to Las Vegas, shifted us forward in time a few years too. He didn't make it though. For all of these years I've been forced to work for the TaskMaster, and every single day I've been worried that someone would find out who we really were. It turns out they did, and if Sue hadn't rescued us the Red Skull's men would have taken us to him."

Mary Jane was holding herself together because of her children, and the editing she had done almost brought tears to Sue's eyes.

"My turn." Rebecca said almost snarling. "Look at me!" she demanded. Nick Fury raised his one eye and looked at her. "I was with mom and dad in the communication room. Dad was telling you what was going on, telling you that the riot was killing innocent people, that he'd seen SHIELD agents working with the Greys. I'll never forget the look on his face when you told him that the President had ordered all mutants rounded up, and that the only way it was going to stop was if the Avengers agreed to turn me, my mother and the Beast over to the Greys."

Rebecca was shaking and Sue had to hold her back from physically attacking Fury.

"Dad told you to go to hell and you opened fire. Spiderman and a bunch of Sentinels crashed through the wall! One them raised his arm and some sort of spear shot out. It went through my father, went through my mother and it pinned them to the wall!"

Sue was holding one of Rebecca's arms and Mary Jane was holding the other one.

"My dad and my mom tried to say something to me as they were dyeing, but whatever it was I never heard it. Dad TRUSTED YOU!" Rebecca was crying and Sue was holding her, but watching Fury. His face was impassive, but she saw a hint of pain in his good eye. "Spiderman put my dad's shield into my arms and got us out of there."

Silently Mary Jane and Sue pulled Rebecca back and eased her into a seat.

"My mom always used to tease my dad that someday they'd put up a statue of him." Rebecca said. The anger had exhausted her but the pain that filled her voice filled the cabin as well. "But I've checked. He doesn't even have a grave. Neither does she. Mom's stuffed and mounted in the Grey's museum in New York. In school the guys used to pass around naked pictures of her. Dad's body was burned."

Even Doom was impressed by the words, Sue could tell that. Namorita was holding a quietly sobbing Mystique while a full sized and nude Jan was trying to comfort Ben and May. Ben was so grief stricken that Jan's nude body wasn't even noticed.

"There's our reasons for shoving you out an airlock Nick." Sue said. "If it weren't for Doom I would have left you in that cell. Now's your chance. Tell us why we're all wrong."

Nick Fury's face was pale under the beard and the dirt. His one eye was filled with pure agony. But his voice was as steady as it had always been when he spoke.

"I can't tell you it wasn't me." He said. "It was. When the anti-mutant party got the White House I was stuck between SHIELD and the Avengers. The White House wanted everything we had on them, on all of the superheroes. I couldn't turn them down. I fought'em for a long time, fought'em hard. But the timing was good for them. A lot of the people I started SHIELD with were retiring, the new guys weren't the same type. They weren't card carrying Grey's, but they leaned that way."

"Why didn't you quit?" Rebecca asked.

"If I had there wouldn't have been anyone slowing them down." Fury said.

"Like that helped?"

"Easy Rebecca." Mary Jane said. "Let him talk."

"Things got harder." Fury said after a deep breath. "Once Reed called me out on project Wide Awake. He'd spotted things in the plans for a world wide defense shield, things that weren't supposed to be in there. Somehow he spotted that the satellites that were going to generate the field would be equipped with mutant tracking units and neutralizers."

"It would be far easier to track and shoot mutants from space than to build Sentinel Robots." Doom said. "And far more economical, and the shield would prevent any from escaping."

"I thought it was a good idea." Fury said. "It was a way I could meet the White House halfway, and they liked it."

"But Reed knew what it could do." Sue said. "To groups like the Xmen. He also knew that to power the satellites would take fusion plants, and the technology for fusion plants wasn't ready yet. He wasn't about to something that unstable into orbit."

"It wasn't only that." Fury said. "Reed knew that a lot of the tech to start the project was stolen from Doom," he looked at Victor, "he was afraid you'd just come in and take it over when ever you wanted."

"I would have, had I been aware of it."

"That's when things started to go really sour." Nick said. "Reed blabbed to the press, the Avengers, the Xmen... He embarrassed the White House and nearly got me fired. I got mad. But it wasn't the usual sort of mad."

"I must stop you for a moment Nick." Victor said. "For at this point events and the masters of those events were reaching even into Latveria itself." he turned to Mystique. "Though at the time I did not know it, the seeds of Latveria's destruction were already being planted."

Mystique looked up at them and only Namorita's arm on her shoulder stopped the woman from curling up into a ball once more.

"I knew about the satellites." She said in an unsteady voice. "I was the one who stole the technology from Doom. I sold it to a black market tech broker."

"At that point I had given the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants sanctuary in Latveria." Doom said. "I was planning to use them for myself, and while I did not trust them, I did not realize just what was occurring behind the scenes."

"Behind the scenes?" Mary Jane asked.

"Yes Mrs. Parker." Doom looked at Fury. "But at this point Nick continue your part of the story."

Nick Fury took a deep breath and went on.

"After Wide Awake was exposed in the press I was ordered to drop it, but not drop it. I put the project underground, gave it to bunch of guys led by Agent Gyrich. Meantime I kept running into nuts with costumes, and I kept having to call on the FF or the Avengers for help. It ate at me, here I was the head of the best group of law enforcers in the world and all the time I had to call for help anyway!"

"Did we ever say no?" Sue demanded. "Or ask for a thank you?"

"It wasn't you." Nick said. "It was me. I kept feeling worthless, useless. I started seeing things different, I started wondering how come you were always there, and it blame near drove me nuts when you guys would catch someone and then destroy his weapons instead of handing them over to SHIELD. It got worse and worse and it broke to hell when They attacked New York."

"They?" Ben asked.

"A terrorist group." Sue said. "They" were devoted to getting back New York, claiming it was their kingdom 20 thousand years ago. They were led by Wenick, who the group thought was an immortal god, but who turned out to be a mutant with some fancy gadgets. He was insane too, wanted to turn New York into a mutant kingdom. It took the Avengers, the FF and the Xmen to beat him. It cost Ben the one woman who loved him."

"And it leveled 3 blocks." Nick said. "But Reed blew up the guys underground base."

"It was that or let a volcano erupt in Manhattan." Sue said. "As Reed and the rest of us explained endlessly to the government investigative panels."

"I started seeing a lot of things hard after that." Nick said. "I got paranoid, I saw mutants everywhere, I didn't trust anyone in a costume, and I didn't take anyone's word that some guy who could lift a building wasn't a threat. Thor and Hercules said they were gods, so that got me mad as hell."

"Is that why you harassed them so much they simply left?" Sue asked. "I remember Thor couldn't walk one foot out of Avenger's mansion without SHIELD agents asking him where he was going and what he was going to do."

"We wanted him gone." Nick said. "More to the point, they wanted him gone."

"The Greys? The White House?" Mary Jane asked.

"No." Doom said. "The true architects of all that has befallen us."

"I..." Mystique started to speak then stopped as everyone looked at her. Namorita put a hand on her shoulder and the woman went on. "In Latveria I was running the brotherhood, watching and planning and plotting. My only friend in the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants was a blind woman, her name was Destiny. Even though I was the leader I relied on her. Destiny could tell the future, not always accurately, but close enough. She saw all of this coming and told me how we could avoid it. While we were in Latveria Destiny told me that Doom was planning to sell us out. I believed her, for you see I had never been able to get Doom's word of honor that we would be safe."

"It is not something I will give easily." Victor said with a meaningful look at Sue.

"I was approached by someone who worked for someone who I trusted less, but whom Destiny said would work out better for us. He was an agent for Baron Zemo. The agent told me that Zemo wanted Latveria, that he had some ancestral claim to the country. I realized it was a trick, but I did not realize how much of a trick it was. The agent said that Zemo's plan was to join me in overthrowing Doom and then we could rule in his place. I knew that the plan also saw the destruction of the brotherhood, so my plan was to overthrow Doom, kill Zemo and rule Latveria."

"While I," Victor said "knew that she was plotting against me and I planned to eliminate her and rule the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants myself."

"That all sounded really dumb." May said. "No wonder it didn't work."

For a few moments there was stunned silence. Then Mystique laughed. It was a laugh tinged with insanity and thankfully it only lasted a short time.

"We were crazy May." Mystique said. "But we were also so scared. We couldn't admit that. Not even to ourselves. You have to realize child that we were playing roles, roles we chose and roles that were chosen for us. I was the greatest woman since Cleopatra, Victor the flawed genius who rivaled Alexander... We fancied ourselves so much better than everyone else, so destined to rule..."

"Sounds like that line from Bugs Bunny." Ben asked. "God what idiots these mortal-types are."

"The correct line is; 'Lord what fools these mortals be." Victor said and the ironic tone in his voice brought a smile to everyone. "And it is from Shakespeare.

"Who?" Ben asked.

"A writer who lived a long time ago." Mary Jane said.

"Oh."

"The Bard was correct." Doom said. "For while Mystique played her game, and I played mine, there were other players in the game. For Mystique was not talking to an agent of Baron Zemo, but to an Agent of the Red Skull."

"But how come your friend Destiny didn't know that?" Mary Jane asked.

"Because Destiny was under mental assault." Mystique said. "I learned this as she died in my arms. For years, almost a decade, Destiny's visions of the future had been corrupted by a powerful telepath. Her visions of the future were real, but instead of working to stop them we were part of their cause."

"The White Queen." Sue said.

"Who?" Ben and May asked together, even as Rebecca snarled and Mary Jane winced at the name. Namorita was surprised, as was Mystique and Nick. But not Victor. Sue saw him give a little nod.

"She's a powerful telepath." Sue said. "She and her husband were part of the ruling council of a group calling itself the: "HellFire Club." The other members I don't know, they were foes of the Xmen. Her partner, or husband, was Sebastion Shaw of Shaw Industries, the company that built the Sentinels."

"So it wasn't your fault Mr. Fury?" Rebecca asked.

"It was kid." Nick said. "And it wasn't. That witch pushed me down the road, but I should'a seen the way that road led. When they put you in charge of things you go no excuse for fouling it up."

"When Latveria was attacked the defenses were sabotaged by the Brotherhood." Victor said. "While I fought them troops of the Red Skull invaded the country, supported by the Greys and some Sentinel robots. They killed the Brotherhood, all but Mystique and captured me, spiriting us both out of the country before the Sentinels attacked with nuclear weaponry. Mystique and myself have been prisoners of the Red Skull ever since."

"Why did they destroy Latveria if you weren't there and the Brotherhood was dead?" Mary Jane asked.

"I don't know." Doom replied. There was a tinge of pain as he spoke. "That question has haunted me for many years. The Skull would often taunt me with it."

He shuddered slightly, so slightly that Sue was sure she was the only one who saw it.

"A few years after it all happened I woke up one day and everything was clear to me." Fury said. "It was like I was waking up out'a one nightmare and into another. I still don't know why my head cleared up."

"I can fill that part of it in for you." Sue said. "The newspaper account I read was sketchy, but it makes sense now. When the Sentinels attacked the White House it was because one of the President's closest advisers was revealed to be a mutant."

"It musta been Shaw." Fury said. "He was a mutant, able to absorb force and use it as strength."

"But he was in charge of building the Sentinels." Rebecca protested. "And he was one of the founders of the Grey party."

"What better place to hide?" Doom asked.

"But why did he do all that?" May asked. "It didn't get him anything but dead."

"Because child he wanted power." Doom said. "There is no one more qualified to know what type of man Sebastion Shaw was than I, because I was much like him. He acted for the same reasons I once acted, the lure of power, the personal conviction that you are so far above the rest of humanity that you have not only the right, but the duty to rule."

"It wasn't only that." Mystique said. "Shaw, like me, believed that the strong only should survive, that the weak deserved their fate."

"That's what the Red Skull believed." Sue said.

Mystique started to cry at the name and the hard way Sue had said it. Namorita bent down to comfort her and threw a harsh look at Sue.

"What it comes down to May is ego, inflated, overstuffed ego." Sue looked directly at Doom as she talked. "The attitude that your so much better at everything than anyone else that you have to rule, and anyone who doesn't believe that, who you even suspect of being as good or better than you... well they have to go."

_Is this really helping? _Sue wondered. _Or am I just making things worse? I do feel for you Mystique, but... do I feel for Victor as well? They were both villains, supervillains... I was a heroine. God listen to me! A heroine! Did I just tell Fury that we didn't want thanks? Did we want the parade and just weren't honest enough to admit it?_

"That's dumb." May said with the absolute conviction only a 12 year old girl could know.

"Such attitudes will not survive failure Susan." Doom said. "For both Mystique and myself were taught humility by a harsh tutor."

"So how did Shaw avoid being spotted as a mutant?" Rebecca asked.

"When his company built the Sentinels he worked a signal into their programming." Doom said. "A signal put out by a transmitter he and the rest of his group always wore. If the Sentinels saw that signal they would ignore that person even if he or she was a mutant. The Red Skull learned of this, he slipped an agent into Shaw Industries and made sure the newer Sentinels would not ignore that signal. Then he exposed Shaw and the rest of the HellFire club the to Greys. He boasted of it often. He played the video recording of Shaw's death often to amuse himself."

"Exit Shaw and the rest of them." Namorita said. "They must have gotten the White Queen too."

"The White Queen is still alive." Mary Jane said before Sue could stop her. "The Grey's have her as a slave."

_Damn it Mary Jane, _Sue said. _These aren't friends yet!_

Sue caught the quickly hidden look on Doom's face and hoped her own expression was just as quickly hidden.

"Like I said, one day I woke up and everything was clear." Nick said. "But by then it was too late to do anything. I tried anyway, but SHIELD was full of Greys by then, and they were watching me all the time. Not only Greys, but Zemo's spies, the Red Skull's spies, hell most SHIELD agents were drawing five paychecks from as many countries." Nick's voice had turned bitter and Sue realized just how badly he felt the agency's downfall. "I was on a secret mission to Russia, to see if the Black Widow could give me any help at all when Zemo's men grabbed me, but before we got far the Skull's men took me away from them."

"Plot to counter plot." Sue said and the rage in her voice stilled them all. "Spy to spy, backroom deal to dark alley to penthouse to boardroom to the UN to the White House... Giant's dancing... crushing lives with each step..."

"Charles Dickens put it more succinctly Susan." Doom said. "It was the Best of times, it was the Worst of Times. What he wrote of the French revolution easily applied to all of us."

"Well it's all over now Victor." Sue said. "We did not rescue any of you to battle the Sentinels or the Greys. We did it because we need your help."

"To fix this ship." Doom said.

"So what then, you're just going to leave?" Namorita asked.

_I am not having that conversation with another person!_ Sue thought fiercely.

"You don't know what it's like out there." Mary Jane said. "None of you do. There's no freedom, no hope."

"I was the Atlantean ambassador to Europe. I know a little. Namor maintains relations with the Greys."

"That doesn't put him high on the scale as far as I'm concerned." Sue said. "While I was in the camp with Jan I heard about Atlantis deal with the Sentinels." Sue's voice was cold enough to make them all shiver. "Atlantean troops patrol the coast and make sure that no mutant escapes. How many has Namor handed back to the Sentinels? Do you have any idea what happens to them afterwards?"

"My brother's first priority is the safety of our people." Namorita said.

"Your brother's first priority is his own ego." Sue snapped. "Did you know that Franklin went to him for help after he thought we were all dead? After all the times the FF saved Atlantis your brother turned my son over to the Greys!"

Once again Sue found herself trembling and had to take a deep breath to calm herself down.

"But that's over now. Franklin is dead. He died in an attack on the Baxter building, almost a year ago now."

"Sue?" Jan asked, walking over to her. "You know when he died?"

"I never told you Jan." Sue said. "We've had enough to deal with."

Jan shrunk and flew up to sit on Sue's shoulder.

"Franklin and a group of fighters, the last of the Xmen, charged into the Baxter building." Sue said, realizing that she would have to tell them all. "I don't know the full story. Newspapers aren't very accurate anymore and the one I found had the Greys seal on it. The resistance plan was to cripple the Sentinel command network so the European powers could attack. The Sentinels were planning on moving their anti-mutant crusade into other countries and that would have meant all out nuclear war. They didn't cripple the Sentinels, but they did disrupt the command network." Sue reached up and let Jan hug her finger. "That is why our collars stopped working that day Jan. That is why we were able to escape." Sue looked back to the rest of them. "But the attack never came. Instead the European leaders made a quick deal with the Sentinels, allowing them to avoid war if they instituted their own anti-mutant programs. The deal was made in secret and would have gone through anyway. The editorial of the paper praised the European leaders for their recognition of the 'mutant threat' and listed the names of the rebels who died."

"He freed you." Namorita said.

"My son died for nothing!" Sue shouted.

Sue looked straight at Namorita and the force of that gaze caused the Atlantean to step back.

"But..."

"He and the last of those Xmen risked their lives for European powers and were betrayed by them! They died for nothing!"

Mary Jane was at Sue's side, holding her back and Sue realized that she was close to attacking Namorita. She stepped back and again bottled up her anger.

"I don't blame your brother," Sue went on, bringing her voice back to normal. "I don't think about him, I don't care about him. He is nothing to me anymore. The world is nothing to me anymore. Namor and Atlantis can stay safe at the bottom of the sea for the next thousand years if they want to."

"Sue I..."

"No Namorita I don't hate you. I don't even hate Namor, but I have plenty of reason too. I'm beyond the point where I can hate anymore. Victor." Sue turned to him. "Can you fix this ship?"

"I believe so." Doom said calmly. "In time, and with the proper tools. You plan to leave this solar system?"

"I've found 4 planets in the databanks that look good." Sue said. "And there are others I remember."

"And the world?" Namorita asked.

"Is on it's own." Sue said coldly. "Like I said any of you can come with us or not."

"That is a decision that should not be made quickly." Doom said.

"We have time." Sue said. She looked at Mary Jane and Mary Jane nodded. "Since there are a few more of us than I thought we'll have to take a chance. We'll continue on this course for another day or two, that is about the limit of the ships supplies, not a week like I first planned, then loop back and return to the Kree base."

"Where is that?" Fury asked.

"Earth." Sue said. "Antarctica. Once I'm sure the base hasn't been found."

"You intend to use the natural magnetic interference caused by the poles to hide our return." Victor said. "Clever, and that is why we are heading toward what is presumably deep space. Anyone tracking us will not believe this ship came from Earth."

"That's what I'm hoping." Sue said. "So we are going to be stuck with each other for a while."

"We got ice-cream though." May said.

"Good idea May." Mary Jane said. "Let's all get something to eat. We need to relax."

"I'll spell Jarvis at the controls." Sue said. "I want to keep an eye on the scanner in case the Sentinels have some sort of space travel they use."

_And I'm too upset to be hungry._ Sue thought. _Damn it all I was only going after Victor, now I've got more people to worry about! I wish I hadn't had to tell them about Franklin. God how much more pain am I going to have to re-live before this is all over? Is showing people how much I hurt the only way to get through to them? Isn't my face enough? Do I have to show them my stomach too?_

Sue was gazing into space a little while later when Mary Jane walked onto the flight deck and got into the co-pilots seat.

"Here you go." She said handing Sue a hot cup of chicken soup. Mary Jane and Jarvis had quickly learned that anything Sue or Jan ate had to be either soft or very well cut, neither woman had enough teeth left that were strong enough to chew well.

"Thanks." Sue said. "How is everyone back there?"

"Well Ben's asleep. Can we try from now on to rescue women who have their own clothes?"

Sue smiled as she drank.

"Namorita was bad enough, but Mystique is so... exotic to him... But her skin was so sensitive from the treatment she got... The fabric hurt her and I couldn't force her..."

"When men hold women prisoner they strip them." Sue said. "Maybe the medical bunk can help her."

"I guess." Mary Jane said. "Victor is in there with Nick and Mystique now. May is right there with him. She's hanging on his every word as he explains how the stuff works."

"How sick are they?" Sue asked, taking another sip.

"Not very." Mary Jane said. "The Red Skull used them both to test designer narcotics, to judge the reaction difference between human and mutant. He'd get them hooked on the stuff, then let them go through withdrawal. That is why they were so weak. He was just about to test another one when we showed up."

Sue winced.

"What about Namorita?"

"Jarvis is showing her the reports we've uncovered from project Wide Awake. I don't think things were as bad in Europe as in America before she was captured. She really might not have known."

"Namor did."

"Are you sure?"

Sue nodded.

"Are we in trouble Sue?" Mary Jane asked after a few minutes of silence.

"We may be." Sue said. "I only expected to find Victor, not the others. Now..."

"I think May is starting her first crush on Victor." Mary Jane said.

"That's understandable." Sue said. "What ever else Victor Von Doom is, he is a born leader. That is the danger Mary Jane. We've presented a born leader with the means to accomplish his life's goal."

"He promised to fix the ship."

"And he will." Sue said. "But in the meantime..."

"What?" Mary Jane demanded as Sue trailed off.

"Look at it from his point of view Mary Jane." Sue said, taking another sip and finding that she had finished the soup. She gazed into the bottom of the empty cup as if she were reading tea leaves. "A base full of advanced equipment and weapons, a former spy, a powerful mutant, a young woman desperate to be what her parents were, two small children, one of whom is already following him around...A group desperate for a leader... everything he needs in the battle he is planning."

"How do you know he's planning all of that?" Mary Jane asked.

"Because I know him." Sue said. She swung her seat around. "Don't I Victor?"

Mary Jane followed Sue's action and was shocked to see Victor standing at the entrance to the flight deck.

_He used to be able to move quietly even with the armor, _Sue remembered. _Without it he's even more silent, but I know how to listen for 'silent' now._

"You both knew me and do not know me now Susan." Victor said.

"Can you honestly tell me the wheels in your head haven't been turning since you came on board?" Sue said. "Come on Victor, you've always wanted the world, you've never had a better chance to take it."

"Not with my kids he doesn't!" Mary Jane snapped. "Not with Rebecca either! I swore I'd keep her safe."

"And you nearly failed." Doom said.

Mary Jane started to rise but Sue held her back.

"Have any of us succeeded in being safe over the past 13 years Victor? Mary Jane sold her body to protect her family, they've lived in more or less comfort for the past 13 years, can you say the same?"

"No." Doom said after a long pause. "No I can not. My apologies Mrs. Parker."

"Where's May?" Mary Jane asked.

"Asleep next to her brother." Doom said. "With the Wasp between them. Rebecca is in earnest conversation with Nick. No doubt talking about her parents."

Mary Jane relaxed.

"I don't know much about you." She said looking at Doom. "Peter always said you were; "Just another super genius like the Coyote in the Road Runner cartoons, always chasing something and never catching it, but too dumb and stubborn to admit it."

_That got ya. _Sue thought watching Doom stiffen. Mary Jane took a deep breath and faced him.

"From the day Ben was born, and later when May was born, Peter and I talked about what they would do if they ever got powers like his. Peter knew that one of them would want a costume someday, it took me a long time to accept that. I saw the hell Peter went through as Spiderman even before the anti-mutant stuff started. I know what Ben wants, I can't stop him when he's older, just like I can't stop Rebecca now. But I can stop him now. And I know for damn sure that Peter would never want his son to help put you in charge of the world."

"I have not even stated that my intentions lay in that direction." Doom said. "Or do you think Susan is the only who has changed?"

"Then what are your plans Victor?" Sue demanded.

"Until 10 hours ago my plan was to survive the day." Victor said. "That has been my plan for over a decade now. Until you killed the Red Skull my plan was vengeance."

"There is no one left to take vengeance on." Sue said. "The president is dead, Shaw is dead, the White Queen is going through her own hell as a slave, you've obviously made your peace with Mystique. You don't have any enemies Victor. You don't have any country to use as an excuse, no more: "rule the world and Latveria will be safe."

That hurt him. Sue could tell in the way his whole body stiffened.

"Latveria..." Doom started but Sue cut him off.

"Is gone. Everything is gone. The stage we played on was wiped clean Victor, and I can't feel hatred for the Sentinels anymore than I could feel hatred for one of your Doom-bots."

"So what is left?" Doom demanded, anger in his voice for the first time. "To flee to some other planet and leave this one to its fate?"

"Would you rule it any better?" Mary Jane demanded.

"The country I ruled was a paradise." Doom said.

"If you agreed with the laws of Doom." Sue countered. "You had your dungeons and prison camps Victor."

"Were my laws unjust?" Doom demanded. "Ask Mystique and she will tell you that while the Brotherhood was allowed to live in my land they were accepted, not scorned. Ask Mystique if she herself did not make a friend while there? Did not relax in an inn and listen to the songs and tales of my people? You say I had dungeons and prison camps Susan, I ask what country does not? When once I was overthrown did not the Fantastic Four aid in putting me back on the throne?"

"Because Zorba was worse." Sue said.

"And how is that situation different from now except in scale?" Doom demanded.

Sue was silent but it was Mary Jane's turn to speak, but she did so in a stunned whisper.

"You really want to rule the world don't you?"

"I will not flee from it as you are planning to do." Doom replied. "Not a hundred years of torture would drive me from my home planet. But to fix it I must rule it. Left to its current rulers what sort of world will emerge in time?"

Now it was both Mary Jane and Sue's turn to be silent.

_He's incredible._ Sue thought. _Ten hours ago he was in chains, now the old Doom is right back in charge. Or is he? What did I say to Mary Jane a few weeks ago? "But Humpty-Dumpty has fallen. If we had someone, someone like Cap, or Reed, or your husband..."_ _My god Victor is someone like that!_

Sue saw the same realization in Mary Jane's eyes.

__

Damn it he could probably do it. Mary Jane knows that, I know that, but at what cost? This is Doctor Doom!

Sue's thoughts and emotions flailed away at her like a cat-o-nine-tails, memories of the endless battles she and the Fantastic Four had with Doom competing with the idea that Doom could indeed destroy the Sentinels and the Greys.

__

I didn't want vengeance, I don't want vengeance! I don't owe humanity any more suffering... But...

Sue was floundering and it was Mary Jane who jumped in with her, but did not let them sink or swim to shore.

"Mr. Doom." Mary Jane said. "I won't lie to you, I didn't want to leave the planet. I'd like to fix things, but Sue said we didn't have a chance, and when I found out what was truly going on I agreed with her. The Greys are using hypnosis on children May's age, teaching them to hate, a whole generation is growing up that way. Maybe you could stop that. But rule the whole world?" Mary Jane shook her head. "That's impossible for any one man. Power in a central being is power that will lead to corruption sooner or later. One man, any man, will sooner or later make a mistake, and if he holds absolute power that mistake is magnified a million times. You ruled a country, but you ruled a small country. Do you really think what worked in Latveria would work world wide?"

"I would not be alone." Doom said.

"Ben is smart, he's a whiz at math just like Peter was, May is just as smart, I want them to grow up to be something, but I want them to chose what to be."

"Fate has limited their choices." Doom pointed out.

"Then I want to give them as much choice as I can." Mary Jane said. "Not just servants or henchmen of Dr. Doom. Peter and I talked about that too, talked about how dangerous it could be to have powers and not have any moral structure to use them in. He learned that the hard way. I've tried to teach that to my children. I've tried to teach them to help people when they can."

"Yet you are taking them to live on another planet."

"If the choice is between another planet and having them be part of some repressive government, then yes I will take them to another planet."

"And you think that any government I create will be repressive?"

"If she doesn't I do." Sue said. "I've seen you rule worlds before Victor, I remember that small world in the micro-verse you took over."

"And yet you would both leave me here, free to pursue my plans, plans that you are both sure I have, even after 13 years as a prisoner of the Red Skull? Do you really believe that I did nothing during those years but contemplate of new ways to conquer?"

"What did you do then?" Mary Jane asked.

"Ask Susan how she spent her days and nights." Doom countered.

Mary Jane looked at her and for a moment Sue closed her eyes.

"You wake up." Sue said, pulling all the emotion from her voice. "You eat, if you can, you do what the guards tell you to do, you go to sleep. You think of how to survive, maybe how to escape. That's it."

"And that is how we all spent our days." Doom said. "First Mystique and myself, then Nick, then Namorita. I have not spent any thoughts on how I would one day rule the world Mrs. Parker. My fantasies walked in another direction, and Susan closed that path when she killed the Red Skull."

"Do you really think your wise enough to fix the world?" Mary Jane asked. "Not smart enough, even Peter said you were super smart, but wise enough to know how to make a government for the whole world that's fair and respectful of peoples rights?"

_My god she's testing him! If he gives the right answer... Comes up with the right plan..._Sue hoped her astonishment wasn't showing on her face. She hadn't thought she'd underestimated Mary Jane, but now Sue realized she had. _Maybe it's because she was so quick to let me lead them all, I thought it was just her way of realizing that I was the best one to lead... but now... is she saying that Victor is better than me? That Victor gives her kids a chance at a better life than I could? And could he? He's everything I said we needed; but he is Dr. Doom!_

But maybe that's it. He is Dr. Doom. His mind matched Reed's, and Reed could have done it. But Mary Jane has done more than she realizes, she's challenged him. Doom would never back down from a challenge. She's asking him, no she's Daring him to save the world! Talk about a deal with the devil!

"If I can create such a plan will you listen to it or simply dismiss it as one more plot of Dr. Doom?"

"I'll listen." Mary Jane said.

"And you Susan?" Doom asked, turning to her. "Will you also put our past behind us and listen with an open mind?"

Sue looked at Mary Jane for a long moment before she answered. Mary Jane's face was passive, but her eyes crackled with same confusion and fear that were in Sue's spirit. But there was something more; there was hope.

_And deep down I have that same hope. _Sue realized. _I can't deny that._

"I'll listen Victor." Sue said, turning back to him. "But I want your word that this stays between the three of us. If we do leave I don't want anyone having second thoughts."

"You have my word." Victor said.

_Mary Jane I hope you know what you've gotten us into._

Mary Jane looked at Sue and the Invisible Woman realized that her friend did know exactly what she had started.

Space is infinite. That was a fact that Sue Richards had always known, but never taken for granted. She had stood outside of galaxies, even outside of the universe, on the decks of ships, on small asteroids and moons and even once floated above the rings of Saturn. Yet each time Sue was still overwhelmed by the sheer vastness of the universe. Namorita, who had been born and raised in at the bottom of the ocean, in a place where there was no sky, was even more staggered. The two of them stood on the outside of Hero's Ark, held to the hull by special gravity units in the boots of their spacesuits.

"Great Neptune!" Namorita whispered. Sue looked in the direction of her gaze. A blue and white half ball was receding in the distance.

"Don't worry." Sue said. "We're going back tomorrow."

"Yea, I guess." Namorita turned away from the sight slowly.

"Let's check the engine." Sue said.

They walked slowly down the length of the ship and Sue was struck again how little a space walk was like diving under water. Instead of an overall feeling of pressure you had a feeling of non-pressure, of emptiness, with only a heartbeat sounding in your ears to remind you that you were alive. The feeling was there, deep down, that one miss-step would spread a person's soul across the endless void.

"Victor are you getting the feed from my camera?" Sue asked.

"Yes." Doom said. "And from Namorita's as well or I would have alerted you."

"Ok." Sue said, and kept on walking. It had been two days since Mary Jane had laid down her challenge. Sue had hoped to be on their way back to Earth, but the Kree satellites showed increased activity in the upper atmosphere. The radio chatter they picked up showed a variety of nations, none of them trusting the other. The Death of the Red Skull had created a minor power vacuum, and everyone was rushing in at once. As a cover each nation claimed they were looking for alien activity.

Sue cut the food rations and hoped they could hold out. Another problem had been keeping everyone busy. Mystique, slowly recovering, spent most of her time asleep or with Namorita. Jarvis continued his lessons to Ben and May, and was joined by Doom. That surprised Sue. Not only did Doom seem to be a patient teacher he had an easy, relaxed attitude around the children. Sue wasn't sure how much of it was an act. Rebecca stayed with Fury, and he could not tell her enough of her father to satisfy the young woman.

Still Sue sensed tenseness in everyone. They hadn't gelled into a group yet, and Sue wasn't sure they ever would or even should. When Doom wasn't with the children he was studying the ship, and it was he who pointed out that one engine might not be good enough to get them into the Kree base safely. Ben and May had wanted to go, but Mary Jane overruled them and Sue agreed. She had pointed out that there were no spacesuits in the children's size anyway. She would go, and Namorita volunteered to come with her.

Now they stood on the outside of the ship, in grey Kree spacesuits. Sue was sweating and she had woken up that morning with painful cramps that had killed her appetite. The atmosphere engines were located on either side of the ball at the end of the ship that held the hyperdrive. Walking on the black skinned craft was a surreal experience; there was no pull of gravity when Sue put her foot down, just a little beep that told her the lock was secure.

They were near the engines when Doom spoke.

"Susan stop."

Sue stopped and behind her Namorita stopped as well.

"What is it?"

"Direct your camera down again, and use your light."

Sue angled her head down and used the light located at her wrist to follow it. A bulbous egg-shaped object protruded from the hull. It was grey and purple, nearly invisible. Sue looked more closely and saw that half of the egg was crushed, as if it were made of clay and had been pressed into the hull.

"That is not part of the Kree design specifications for this ship." Doom said.

Taking a scanner from her belt Sue held it over the egg.

"It's giving off a signal." Sue said. "Modulated carrier wave at 30 watts."

Namorita appeared next to Sue and bent down.

"Should I just rip it off?"

"No." Sue said. She looked more closely at it. "No markings."

"Can you make the outer skin invisible?" Doom asked.

"Yes."

Sue concentrated and slowly the egg shimmered. As the outer shell of the egg vanished a small circuit board and a large blue packet were revealed. Sue heard a slight hum and guessed that Doom was zooming in with her suit camera.

"It is a remote tracing unit and a small explosive." Doom said.

"Explosive?" Namorita demanded. "How small?"

"It doesn't have to be large." Sue said. "All it has to do is break through the hull. The Sentinels must have shot it on us when we got away."

"Why not just blow us up then?" Namorita asked.

"Better to follow and use the explosives later after the ship is in it's base or has met with a larger ship" Doom said. "Is that the only one?"

"I don't know." Sue said. "But if it isn't we'd better find the rest of them."

There turned out to be six of the eggs stuck onto to one side of the ship near the ball end. Finding the rest of the eggs hadn't been difficult. With Doom and Mary Jane shifting the ship to angle different parts of it toward the sun Sue and Namorita had searched every inch of the hull. They were tired after that, but Sue had decided to work on the atmosphere engine anyway. Doom needed the time to finish examining the design of the bombs.

Namorita hadn't liked that idea, but Sue overruled her. So for hours they pulled twisted and broken metal out of the turbine fans. Then Namorita straightened the fan blades as much as she could while Sue fixed a broken fuel line.

"You were out there too long." Mary Jane said as she and Rebecca helped Sue and Namorita out of their spacesuits. The two of them had been out in space for nearly 10 hours.

"We don't have a lot of time." Sue said. She ran her hand through hair that was soaked with sweat and took a deep breath. Inside the ship the suit weighed at least fifty pounds and she felt each one of those pounds. Her stomach was churning and Sue's eyes were burning. Mary Jane pulled off one of Sue's boots and Sue leaned her head back against the bulkhead. She closed her eyes and rested for a moment.

When Sue opened her eyes she was flat on her back and looking up at May's concerned face.

"She's awake!" May called.

"How are you feeling?" Mary Jane asked, putting her hand on Sue's forehead.

"I'm alright." Sue said, forcing herself to rise. She wasn't ok of course. Her head swam and her bones ached. The cramps were back and something seemed to have turned her tongue into sandpaper. "What happened?"

"You blacked out." Mary Jane said. "And you've got some sort of fever."

"A fever?" Sue demanded. The room whirled around her but Sue pulled herself together.

"Well you did spend half a night walking through a jungle." Mary Jane said.

"Good point." Sue said. She let herself slide off of the bunk and with Mary Jane's support stood up. "What's going on?"

"Everyone is talking about the eggs." Mary Jane said.

"Figures." Sue said.

The ship did not have a briefing room so once again everyone but Jarvis assembled in the cargo area. Doom had used a portable unit to project a hologram of the egg in the center of the room.

"Susan?" He asked surprised as Mary Jane helped Sue into the room. Mary Jane eased Sue down to the deck beside Jan and then sat beside her. Sue looked up and defied any of them to say something. No one did.

"How much of a problem are the eggs?" Sue asked.

"Not insurmountable." Doom said calmly. "They are designed to be nothing but remote signaling devices unless disturbed. Then they explode. They do present problems however.

"As long as they are transmitting the Sentinels will know we haven't left the solar system." Sue said.

"Yes." Doom said. I have adjusted our course so that we are now heading toward the asteroid belt, once there we can park the ship behind a suitably large rock and remove the eggs."

"How long will it take us to get there?"

"A day, I am not going to risk being more easily tracked by an long active burn from our propulsion systems."

"They might think we have a base out here." Rebecca said. "And come out after us, if they can."

"The Sentinels operate with a mechanical mind." Doom said. "If we appear to vanish into the asteroid belt rather than engage the hyperspace engine they will conclude that either a base exist or that we are meeting another ship. They will want to investigate, and I think they have the resources to do so."

"How do we disarm the eggs?" Sue asked. A cloud was starting to force its way into her mind but she fought it back.

Doom adjusted the hologram and it zoomed in on the circuit board. A tiny tube shaped object with colors on it was highlighted.

"This is the key. This diode is critical to the power supply, we need to focus a beam of heat onto it, a small laser from the repair kit should do, and fuse it solid. Once it is shorted out the battery will simply run down. That will solve the transmitter and explosive problem, but the skin of the egg can not be removed, and if the beam is off even by a small amount the device may detonate."

"I can make the skin invisible." Sue said climbing to her feet. "So that solves the..." Sue shook her head. She had fought off the cloud in her mind, but her legs were falling out from under her.

_What was I saying? It was... oh no....the fever, feel weak, but... Can't let them down... Not Mary Jane, not Ben, Not May, Reed... Franklin! no! No! NOOOOOOOO!!!_

Sue was still protesting as the fever dragged her mind back into a stygian abyss.

Dreams and fevers have many things in common but one large difference. In the midst of a fever, like a dream, you have no concept of time, no real stable reality to reach out and hold onto. There is only the moment. But in a fever the moment is filled with pain.

Sue woke up from that pain and was simply grateful not to feel like she was on fire.

_After everything else I've lived through, _Sue thought, _to be killed by a bug, that would have been too sad._

At the same time she woke up she became aware of moans and screams, and of the fact that she couldn't move. Something held her arms and legs in place. Sue looked down and saw a sort of woven white string had been wrapped around her wrist and ankles and secured to the bunk. Under the light blanket someone had put on her she was nude. She looked around and saw that nearly everyone else was similarly secured. Rebecca, Mary Jane, Namorita and Jan all were laying in bunks, all tied down. Mystique was slumped in a chair asleep.

Sue tried to move and found that whatever the substance was it was very strong.

"Hey!" Sue tried to speak but all that came out was a croak. She cleared her throat and tried again.

"Hey!"

"Sue?" May asked, poking head in through the doorway. She rushed over to the bound woman and put her hand on Sue's forehead. "Fever's gone, how are you feeling?"

"Thirsty." Sue said, pulling at her restraints. "What is this stuff?"

"Webbing." May said. She took a knife and started to cut Sue's wrist free.

"Webbing?"

Sue blinked her eyes to clear them and for the first time saw the strain and fatigue on May's face. Lines that should never have been on the face of a 12-year-old. Sue's heart ached for that even as she marveled at how calm May was.

"Ben's webbing." May said. "Sorry about it, but everyone was thrashing around in the bunks, Mystique said you might hurt yourselves."

"It was a good thing to do." Sue said. "Who's well besides us?"

"Pretty much no one." May said. Mr. Doom, Mr. Fury and Jarvis are in the other room. "Funny, Mr. Doom and Mr. Fury keep calling out for someone named Val, or Valeria. Did they date the same person?"

"Same name, different people." Sue said, remembering Doom's love as a kind, gentle woman, completely overwhelmed by Victor's personality, and Fury's girlfriend; a seasoned spy.

"How long have I been out?" Sue asked.

"Two days." Mystique said pulling herself out of the chair. If May's face had lines on it Mystiques had valleys. There was a tinge of insanity in her voice and Sue could well imagine what she had been through. Mystique handed Sue a cup of water while May freed her ankles. "I'm glad you are awake. May, Ben and I were the only ones who were immune."

"Where's Ben?"

"Asleep." May said. "He wore himself out."

Completely free now Sue sat up, letting the blanket fall away from her body. She had lost weight once again, her ribs could clearly be seen. She stood up and waited a moment for the dizziness to pass. Her body wasn't at full strength, she could tell her muscles were loose, but she could move.

"What's been going on?" Sue asked taking the jumpsuit that Mystique handed her.

"After you collapsed the Victor and Nick tried to defuse one of the bombs." Mystique said. "They failed and it exploded inward, punching a whole in the hull."

"Ben sealed it." May said proudly.

"Webbing?" Sue asked.

"From his wrist." Mystique said. "He didn't even know he could do it, but when the air started to rush out he reacted instinctively." She smiled slightly. "That is the way it is with many of my kind."

"Then everyone got real sick." May said.

"It's contagious but not lethal." Mystique said.

"It may not be fatal but it takes you down a peg." Sue said leaning against the bunk.

A scream from across the way got their attention and Mystique crossed the distance in a flash. Namorita strained against her webbing, far thicker webbing than had anchored Sue down. Unlike Sue she was not covered and her skin was marked with grey patches that flaked off.

"Water!" she screamed. "Please great Neptune water!"

Taking a small cup Mystique poured a little bit of water over Namorita's brow and then into her mouth.

"More!" Namorita pleaded. "Please more!"

"There is no more for now." Mystique said and returned the cup to the dispenser.

"MORE!" Namorita howled and then feel back pleading and moaning.

"When the explosive detonated it damaged a few of the systems." Mystique said. "The water and food units barely work."

_Into the fire. _Sue thought.

The Kree ships did not store food exactly. Rather they stored blocks of solid protein matter that a matter replication system then turned into food. Water was recycled, but only to a point. Anticipating no more than a week in space with only seven people Sue had stored just a little more than needed. With the systems in working order the 10 of them could have lasted a week on thin rations, but without them... they were in trouble.

"Please." Mystique pleaded quietly and in her yellow eyes Sue saw the near total agony of a person on the brink of insanity. "She is my friend, more than... Please..."

"We'll make it through ok." Sue said calmly and Mystique fell against her crying. May quietly moved out of the cabin. After a few minutes Mystique pulled herself together.

"We have more problems." She said wiping her face. A craft of some sort is a day behind us, it came from Earth and seems to know where we are."

"Sentinels." Sue said. "Following the homing beacons, and maybe spotting the explosion."

"Yes." Mystique agreed. "I do not... I could not think of... what to do..."

"Don't worry." Sue said.

_I killed the Skull too quickly. _Sue thought, looking at the torn and broken woman infront of her. _What did he do to you? You used to be one of the strongest, smartest women I ever met..._

"I'm..." Mystique turned away and put her hand on Namorita's shoulder. "I'm sorry. I'm not very helpful. I haven't been for a very long time now, and I doubt I ever will again. I used to live for a great cause... so I thought... because of that cause I destroyed... everything... I thought I was so..."

"You were."

Sue took hold of Mystique's shoulders and turned her around.

"But that was then. It's over. It's been over for a long time. Whatever you did, you paid for."

"No, I'm damned... I have learned that, I will never stop being punished, I deserve... the Skull But..."

"Mystique I lost everything in part because of what you did. My family, my husband my son, if anyone has the right to hate you I do. I don't."

_And I really don't, _Sue thought. _God that surprises the hell out of me. But the woman I would have hated died years ago, she died in the rapes, in the drugs, in the tortures. Now if I can only get her to believe it._

"Namorita has told me this as well." Mystique said. "I don't believe it. I have done things... Why I live is a mystery to me."

"Why any of us are still alive is a mystery." Sue said. "We probably won't ever know why. But we are here, we have to make the best of it."

"You weren't me. You weren't a supervillain." She turned to Namorita again and took hold of her hand. "My sins are not washed away."

"Do you love her?" Sue asked.

"What?" Mystique looked confused at the question.

"Do you love Namorita?"

"I... Yes. She protected, saved me. When the guards raped me, beat me, when they... when they..."

"Then do for her what she did for you." Sue said. "You take care of her, I'll get us out of this, but you take care of her."

"I will." Mystique said in a very small very broken voice. She took a damp cloth and moved it along the grey patches on Namorita's body.

"I'll go see what I can do about the rest of it." Sue said.

May was waiting outside of the small room for her.

"She'll be ok." May said. "She gets like that sometimes."

"It's hard for her." Sue said. She reached over and stroked May's hair. "And for you. How long has it been since you got some sleep?"

"A while." May nodded. "It's hard to sleep when everyone's screaming. Ben wanted to gag everyone..."

"Going nuts with the webbing isn't he?" Sue asked. She saw more webs scattered around the passageway.

"It's everywhere!" May exclaimed, completely exasperated. "I mean it's handy... but..."

"I know." Sue said and she couldn't help the smile that came to her face. "My little brother was a handful before he got his powers... afterwards... Well we had to get special wall paper to keep him from burning the house down."

The two of the giggled for a moment and May threw her arms around Sue.

"I'm glad your ok again."

"So am I." Sue said hugging her.

"Where is Ben now?" Sue asked once May let her go.

"He's in there." May said pointing toward the other room. Mystique said we should separate the girls and the boys... you know."

"I know." Sue said. "I've done my share of nursing. "I'll go see how they are, you go back and help Mystique ok?"

"Ok."

May went back into the room and Sue stood up. Going to the blanket she parted it slightly and peered inside. Victor, Nick and Jarvis were all lying in seperate bunks, with their arms and legs webbed down. Thin blue blankets had been thrown on them all and the blue fabric showed bright against pale skin. Ben was giving a drink of water to Jarvis. He looked up as Sue came in.

"Hi." he said. Like May Ben had lines on his face that he was far too young to have to bear.

"I hear you can cast webs." Sue said walking over to him.

"Yea." He held up his wrist. At the base, where the blue veins formed the letter K was a small grey mound. "I can do it with my feet too." he said proudly holding up a foot for Sue to see. On the top of the foot, just above each toe were similar grey mounds. "I can't get them to work right yet, first time I tried I stuck myself to the floor."

"It takes practice." Sue said.

Suddenly Ben threw himself toward her and hugged her, burying his face into her body.

"Are you really ok? Does that mean mom will be ok?"

"She'll be fine." Sue said hugging him back and hoping he'd let her go quickly. Ben was quickly developing spider strength and obviously didn't realize it yet. Still she said nothing for a few minutes as he held onto her. He didn't cry, but Sue didn't expect him too. It was a cliche that boys didn't cry, but it was true. Sue knew from experience that at a certain point boys turned into teenagers and teenage boys didn't cry. So Sue let him hold onto her and might have let him keep doing it for a while longer if Jarvis and Victor hadn't moaned.

Ben broke the hug and went to Jarvis.

"We could really use more water." was all that he said.

"I know." Sue replied as she took the small cup from the dispenser. She cradled Victor's head and held the cup to his lips. His face was pale and Victor's eyes were wild as he looked up at her.

"I will give you the world Valeria." he whispered through parched lips. "I will keep you safe in my world, those men will never touch you again. Please!" His arm broke free of the webbing and snatched Sue's arm in a vise like grip. "Understand! I must rule! Only if I rule are you safe! Let me rule!"

"It's alright Victor." Sue said quietly. "You can rule, but first you have to rest."

"Doom can never rest." Victor said bitterly. "The world will not let Doom rest. Doom must be supreme. No one is as brilliant as Doom! Doom must rule or all will die! Doom will command everyone to be content! Valeria you have to understand that! I must make you see... that is why I left... I wouldn't have left... if I had been there those men... I found them for you! I destroyed them for you! Them and their families! I did it for you!"

"I understand Victor." Sue said. "That's all over now, you just have to rest."

Ben appeared at her side and together they forced Victor's arm down. Once it was close enough to the edge of the bed Ben webbed it. Then he helped Sue pry Victor's fingers away from her arm. They had left deep marks. Doom sighed and passed out.

"He keeps saying that stuff." Ben said and Sue could tell that he was worn out. "He keeps talking about Valeria, Mr. Fury keeps begging everyone to forgive him and Jarvis keeps trying to get all the Avengers out of the mansion!"

"It's hard I know." Sue said. "But don't worry, they'll be ok. In the meantime you just have to be strong."

"I guess." Ben said. "I'm trying not to listen too, it gets really personal, kinda gross too."

"I think they'd appreciate it if you never told anyone what you heard." Sue said.

"I won't."

"Ok, you keep an eye on them, I'm going to the flight deck. We've still got to get out of here."

"Right." Ben said. "I forgot about the Sentinels."

Sue left and headed toward the flight deck.

_I have got to get us out of this._ Sue thought. _Those kids have worked to hard to keep us alive and Mary Jane deserves a chance to be proud of her children._

Sue had long ago learned not to argue with computers. Be they advanced enough to harbor dreams of galactic conquest or simply obediently relaying information; arguing didn't help. That didn't mean she had to like what they told her. Six Sentinel robots had linked themselves and were heading out to them. If the hyperdrive had been fixed Sue would have used it. But it wasn't and that was a problem. Short range Sue could escape the robots, simply by outrunning them or shooting them out of space. But they were linked to the other Sentinel robots, and more would come.

"The safest place to hide is in death." Sue whispered as she started to scan the asteroids around the ship.

"Are you hungry?" May asked coming onto the flight deck.

"Yes." Sue answered. She took the cup of soup May handed her.

_Just like her mother. _Sue thought. _Always a gift. Am I so remote that they need an excuse to come and talk to me?_

"What are you doing?"

"Searching for the right asteroid." Sue said. "I have a plan, but I need the right one to make it work."

"Aren't they just rocks?"

"Not all." Sue took a sip of the soup and was extremely pleased when her stomach did not recoil. A warm pleasant feeling spread through her body. "Most of them are nickel, some tungsten, even a little iron. There's a supermarket in minerals out here. But I need one that has hydrogen inside."

"Hydrogen?"

"The most common element in the universe." Sue said. "It's not out of the ordinary for hydrogen gas pockets to be trapped inside an asteroid as it forms."The console beeped and the display changed to show an asteroid twice as big as the ship. Large green areas on the display showed against brown.

"Perfect." Sue said.

"What are we going to do?"

"Hopefully convince the Sentinels that we've blown ourselves up." Sue said.

__

Hero's Ark was in the shadow of the asteroid when Sue stepped out of the airlock. She could sense it even without looking, a large solid body spinning wildly in space. Sue switched on her suit lights and carefully walked across the hull. One thing Sue was very grateful to the Kree for; their spacesuits were self-cleaning. The air in the suit smelled as clear as it ever did, clearer than the air in the ship, and the fabric felt as fresh as the day it was made. Beyond her suit light was nothing but endless black vacuum. Sue walked down the hull until she came to the damaged portion. It hadn't been a big hole, but the force of it was enough to pierce the hull. Still the inside patch that Ben had put on was solid. Sue smiled and wondered if she should tell him the truth. Kree spacecraft were triple hulled with independent panels and pressure sensitive self-sealing foam located in between the first and second layers. Ben's webbing had merely started what the foam had completed.

_I'll tell him when we're back on Earth._ Sue thought. _At this point he needs all the confidence he can get._

She moved to the first bomb and took out a laser torch. Starting a foot away from the bomb itself Sue cut into the hull, making a foot wide circle around the bomb. She moved slowly, watching her suit meter and being careful not to let the hull get too hot. Sue didn't know if the explosive was temperature sensitive, but there was no way she was in a mood to take chances.

It was almost a half an hour before Sue pulled the hull plating around the first bomb. As she pulled the plate away the foam sprang into action. Sue waited until she was sure it was sealed then walked back to the airlock and carefully anchored the plate to the side of the hull with a soft adhesive. Then she walked to the next bomb and repeated the procedure. When she had all of them off of the ship Sue pulled the plates off of the hull and used more of the adhesive to stick them together end to end. The adhesive had come from the ships repair kit; the instructions said it would stick quickly but take hours to become solid. Perfect for what Sue had in mind.

"Ben, May." Sue asked triggering her communications unit. "Are you ready?"

"Ben's putting it in the airlock now." May said. "It stinks."

"Good reason to get rid of it then." Sue said smiling. She watched as the outer door of the ship opened. Sitting on the floor of the airlock was four ten-gallon containers. With the recycling down most of the ships organic waste was sitting behind a panel. Getting it into the two containers could not have been a pleasant job but Ben did it without complaint. Sue picked one up, braced her self against the ship and tossed it toward the asteroid. Her suit light let her follow it until it impacted against the surface. She did the same for the rest of them. The cold of deep space had frozen them solid so the contents did not spill out.

"Perfect." Sue whispered. She took one of the plates with the bombs and, bracing herself carefully, sent it sailing past the asteroid.

"May what is the reading?" Sue asked.

"It's spinning once every 45.98 seconds reletive to us." May said.

"Right. Is Ben tracking the bomb I just tossed?"

"Got it." Ben said. "It's not moving too fast."

"Good. We don't want it too far away."

Sue pushed off of the ship and floated toward the asteroid. Time was getting short for her plan to work, but Sue let her self drift anyway, being ready with her suit thrusters. Landing on an asteroid spinning in space wasn't easy and it was even harder on one that was shaped only vaguely like a flattened wedge. If Sue came in to hard she might damage her suit, if she came in too soft the asteroid's spin would knock her back into space. Adding to the difficulty was the fact that she had to land while carrying bombs.

_And just to make it really fun I'm still weak from the fever. And getting off of it should be a lot of laughs too._

The surface of the asteroid came closer and for a moment Sue thought she had miss-judged it. But at the last moment she triggered her suit thrusters and came to rest on the hard rock.

"I'm down and safe." Sue said into the com unit. "Everyone ok over there?"

"Were fine." May said.

The surface of the rock was pockmarked with thousands of large, small and mini-impact craters. Dust covered some of it, but not too deeply. Using some of the mini-craters Sue moved to the nearest large crater and pressed the deck plates with the bombs onto it. A little adhesive set it solidly and Sue breathed a sigh of relieve as she moved off. Creeping hand over hand across the surface of the rock she moved to the edge. Though there was no up or down in space there was the ship, and from Sue's perspective the asteroid was only facing it for 3 seconds at a time. Sue waited, timed herself and then leapt into space and triggered her suit thrusters. It was close, if there had been atmosphere around her Sue would have sworn she could feel the wind as the edge of the big rock whipped past her. She didn't relax until she was in the airlock and air was filling it.

"Mary Jane?" Sue asked in astonishment as she stepped out of the airlock. "You should be in bed."

"No beds on the ship." Mary Jane said. She was wearing only a robe and her skin was nearly grey. Sue pulled off the rest of the suit and went to her.

"May told me what you were doing, I wanted to help." Mary Jane said. She tried to step forward and Sue caught her.

"You helped enough by having them." Sue said. "Now come on, lets get you back to your bunk."

"Mom!" May asked coming down from the flight deck. "I thought you were in bed."

"Everyone thinks that." Mary Jane said with a smile that showed how sick and weak she was.

They got into the bunk room and Sue saw Mystique on the floor. The woman was curled up into a ball under Namorita. With a grunting effort May and Sue got Mary Jane back into her bunk.

"The webbing disolves after a while." May said.

"Mystique?" Sue asked. She carefully lifted Mystique's head.

"She must have passed out again." May said. "She does that a lot."

"I see." Sue said. Mystique was breathing softly but Sue noticed a small amount of blood under her. Puzzled she lifted the woman's left wrist and saw a slash mark that was already beginning to fade. "I really see."

"What is it?" May asked.

"Deathwish." Sue said holding up Mystique's wrist. "But she's healing too fast for it to work."

"Suicide?" May asked. "Why?"

_Why not? _Sue thought but she was not going to say that out loud.

"She's been through a lot May." Sue said. She lifted Mystique up and laid her into an empty bunk. Then she looked over at Namorita. Her skin was almost all grey now. The Atlantean was laying very still and for a moment Sue's heart stopped. Walking over she took the medical scanner and ran it over Namorita's body.

"She isn't dead." May said.

"No." Sue said, breathing again. "She isn't." Suddenly struck by the way May had said that Sue turned around and looked at her. "You know that don't you?"

May shrugged. "I always know. I just do. Sometimes if I touch them right, it helps. Makes me tired though."

Sue closed the scanner and looked at her. May looked back in complete innocence.

"Mystique must have thought Namorita was dead, or dying." Sue said. "We'd better get Ben to web her up until this plan is done."

"I'll get him." May said.

She left and Sue went over to Mary Jane.

"She's a little miracle isn't she." Mary Jane whispered. "I knew she was good at nursing small strays that came to our house... but Sue I never dreamed..."

"You've got two kids who can walk on walls." Sue said. "One of them can spin webs and the other heals people." Sue bent down and kissed Mary Jane's forehead. "I'm going to keep them safe for you Mary Jane. You get some rest."

Mary Jane sighed and closed her eyes.

_Franklin. _ Sue thought as the image of Franklin when he first used his powers suddenly came to her mind. _Darling... Why did you have to die? _Sue realized she was gripping the bunk so tightly her knuckles were white. She let go and then wiped the tears from her eyes, fighting them back. A mountain of rage stormed through her and for a moment she hated Mary Jane. Mary Jane who's children still lived while Sue's only child was dead. The moment faded and Sue was left with a horrifying guilt over her thoughts. Her legs almost buckled beneath her but Sue closed her eyes and pulled herself together. She fought the rage and the guilt and the pain back, and opened her eyes just as Ben and May came into the room.

_I'll keep them safe. _Sue promised the sleeping woman quietly. _God damn-it if I have to blow up the sun I'll keep them safe!_

"I don't get it." May said as Sue gave a short burst on the thrusters to start the ship moving away from the asteroid. "Why put that stuff on the asteroid, won't it just all blow up anyway?"

"Very few explosions destroy things completely." Sue said. She activated the main engines at low power to keep them moving. "There is always something left, a chemical residue, a triggering device, I once saw a building blow up and all that was left was a desk with a flower pot on it. The flower was ok."

"So the Sentinels will look for leftovers?" May asked.

"Right." Sue said. "That's why I had you and Ben shove everything we could spare out of the air lock. When we blow the asteroid the Sentinels should assume that we blew up the ship trying to defuse the bombs. They should find metal residue from the asteroid, organic residue from the stuff we threw onto the asteroid and enough flotsam and jetsam from the ship to convince them."

"What about the bomb you threw away?"

"That is to show them how we were getting rid of the bombs." Sue said. "See if we just blew up the asteroid they'd wonder why there wasn't more wreckage, they know how powerful their own bombs are after all. But if they find the bomb still attached to the deck plate they'll hopefully decide that we were getting rid of the bombs that way and caused our own ship to blow up."

"What if it doesn't work?" May asked.

"We think of something else." Sue said. "You only fail when you stop trying."

"Hmmm." May said and Sue keyed the intercom.

"Ready Ben?"

"Ready. On thin shot on the gas pocket and a second later one on the bombs."

"Right, when I say so."

_Kids with toys. _Sue thought. _We never covered the variable power ranges the guns have in the simulators, there wasn't time, then Ben figures them out in five minutes and slices through the Red Skull's ceiling like a master. God Mary Jane is going to be proud of them._

Sue waited for a moment for the stab of guilt and rage to come, but it didn't. Instead she had a flash of memory: Franklin, Johny and Reed building their first hovercar together. She only had an instant to re-live it then Sue had to push the image back.

"Almost there." Sue said. On the screen was a course chart. On one side of the asteroid were the Sentinel robots on the other was the ship. They were moving under power now, safely hidden by the bulk of the big rock. But the further they moved away the more likely the Sentinels would detect the engine emissions. The engine cut off point was tricky. Too soon and the blast from the asteroid would catch them with too much force, too late and the Sentinels would see them. Sue was going to cheat a little, using her own force field to cushion the blast so they could cut the engines sooner. Sue just hoped that she was up to the task.

"Ok May." Sue said. "In about 30 seconds it's going to be up to you. I might pass out and you'll have to steer the ship if looks like we're going to hit something."

"I'm ready." May said.

_Would you tell me if you weren't? _Sue asked, but kept that question to herself.

"Ok Ben." Sue said hitting a few switches. "You've got the countdown."

"Ready." Ben said.

Ten seconds later a nearly invisible beam of charged particles shot out of the gun turret on the left side of the ship. Precisely two and one half seconds later another beam, this one also invisible but hot enough to melt rock followed it from the right turret. The first shot hit the asteroid and sliced an irregular channel out of it until it reached a pocket of trapped hydrogen gas. The second beam hit the center of one of the egg bombs just as the gas was allowed to escape into space. The fireball that followed was silently spectacular. The cascade reaction Sue had planned for, with more and more of the trapped hydrogen exploding, birthed a small sun behind them.

Sue gripped her hands against the side of her seat, closed her eyes and concentrated on putting a thick force field behind them. She shaped it carefully, designing it to use the blast to push the ship to higher speeds. Then she screamed in agony as megawatts of energized plasma and tons of semi-solid super heated rock slammed into it. Her body convulsed uncontrollably and only the straps that held her to the chair stopped Sue from lurching through the control panel.

The blast caught the ship and punched it through space with only May's hands at the controls stopping them from going into a head over heels spin.

But while the agony was brutal it was also brief. After the first and second shockwaves passed them Sue let her shield down and was stunned to find that she was still conscious.

"We're safe." May whispered. Her hands were shaking and Sue was sure the girl had been scared stiff.

"We're safer." Sue corrected her. She reached over and switched on the radio. "Now we run silent." Sue switched off most of the active systems and reduced the others to lower power levels. "You and Ben go and check on everything, I'll listen into the Sentinels and see if they've bought it."

"Right." May un-strapped herself and walked somewhat shakily off of the flight deck.

Sue took a deep breath, fought off sleep and settled down to listen.

... To be continued.


	4. Chapter 4

End of Hope

ch4

Sue guided the Kree spaceship Heroes Ark into its dry-dock cradle on the left of the control building and set it down gently. The ships systems seemed to sigh in relief as she started to put them into a stand-by mode. Sue knew how they felt. Her body ached, and while she had survived the jungle fever, Sue had not recovered from it yet. She'd hoped to have at least two more days in space, but listening to the radio chatter and looking at the information relayed by the Kree spy satellites had convinced her it would be safer to return quickly. The death of the Red Skull had touched off a major war between Baron Zemo and many of the European powers for the Red Skull's African kingdom. Because of that the Sentinels attention was focused in Africa. A perfect time for a small ship to slip into Antarctica unnoticed.

"Are we there yet?" Ben's voice sounded on the intercom.

"We're down and safe." Sue said as she finished with the last of the power down procedures. Vents opened and the stale air of the ship started to smell cleaner as the sterile air of the Kree base replaced it. Un-strapping herself she got out of the pilot's chair and walked back to the small bunkrooms. One on either side of the passageway they had been converted to small hospitals. Ben, May and Mystique had been the only ones who were immune to the fever. The responsibility for keeping them all alive had fallen to them. It had proven too much for the broken spirited Mystique. She lay asleep on her bunk, covered from head to neck with Ben's webbing to stop her from committing suicide. Even in sleep Mystique looked like she was in pain. Her yellow eyes were closed, but her face tight and her red hair was streaked with white. Jan and Rebecca also slept, also webbed up, but only by their arms and legs. Mary Jane was awake and May was cutting away at the webbing that held her.

"Space isn't as much fun as Star Trek used to make it out to be." Mary Jane said. She was still pale but starting to look better.

"We just have to go find someplace that is." Sue said. "I'm going to go to the control tower and make sure the base is secure. Can you get everyone here into the main building and into beds?"

"I don't think we'll have a problem." Mary Jane said. "Ben found an anti-grav platform stored near the cargo bay while we were all sick."

"Ok then. Keep Mystique webbed up."

"Why?"

"She tried to kill herself." Sue said. "I'm not sure how stable she is without Namorita awake to keep her in line."

"Oh." Mary Jane stood up, tottered a bit, but steadied herself. "Alright. I'll put them in the same room."

"Good idea."

Mary Jane was sitting down to eat when Sue found her in the dining room. She had changed out of the ship jumpsuit and into a blue flannel nightgown. What was left of a large pizza, with so many toppings Sue was surprised Mary Jane could lift it was on the table in front of her.

"I was hungry." Mary Jane said.

"Me too." Sue said. She walked into the kitchen and started to operate the food unit.

"You can have some if you want." Mary Jane said.

"I don't think I could handle tearing into a pizza right now." Sue said. She walked back in with a cup of soup and sat down. "Is everyone settled?"

"Yes." Mary Jane gave a little laugh. "In all my life Sue I never expected to be putting Dr. Doom to bed."

"I'm sure he never expected it either." Sue said smiling. "At least we have the room."

Mary Jane nodded.

"I put Mystique in with Namorita and Ben webbed her up. God Sue, that's so strange to see. Peter used webbing he made up in bottles and kept in little cartridges on his wrist. Ben just sort of..." she made a movement with her wrist. "Shoots. And his toes! I don't know what I'll do when May starts doing that stuff."

"She may not." Sue said. "Mutations are variable, and she seems to have picked up a power Peter never had."

"The healing touch." Mary Jane said. "Some times I wonder how I'm going to cope... on any world. How did you do it?"

"I had Reed. And Ben. And Johny." Sue said pausing between the names. She fell silent and stared down at her soup. "And Franklin was 15 when the Sentinels attacked, just beginning to cope with his own powers."

"I'm sorry." Mary Jane said. "I didn't realize."

"Don't worry Mary Jane." Sue said. "It's all in the past."

"No it isn't." Mary Jane said.

"What?"

"I was taking care of you before I got the fever myself." Mary Jane said. "You talked a lot Sue. I shouldn't have listened, but I didn't have a choice."

"Fever's can make you say anything." Sue said, putting her cup down.

"I know. But it was more than that. You can say all you want that you don't care anymore, that you're not mad, but you are. I can't tell you how many nights I cried myself to sleep without Peter, but you've never done that have you."

"The tears are all gone Mary Jane." Sue said. She stood up and walked into the kitchen. Mary Jane got up and followed her. "And crying was a good way to wake up Jan."

"For 13 years the only person you've had in your live that you care about is Jan." Mary Jane said, putting her hand on Sue's shoulder. "And now she sleeps with May. I know it bothers you Sue."

"We weren't lovers Mary Jane." Sue said. "Besides May needed her more than I did." She washed the cup and put it away. She started to move but Mary Jane stood in front of her.

"Sue you've bottled it all up and it's killing you. You must know that. You can't hold on to all of the grief and the hate... not forever."

"I don't hold on to anything Mary Jane." Sue said pushing past her. "It's not there."

"It is." Mary Jane insisted following her. "And I'd like to help. I owe you everything Sue, me, the kids, Jarvis."

Sue turned and faced her so suddenly that Mary Jane took a step back.

"I appreciate what you think you're trying to do Mary Jane, really I do. But there's no need. My hate and my grief died in the camp. They had to because there's no way I could have held onto them and survived."

Sue picked up a piece of Mary Jane's pizza and carefully took a bite of it. She chewed, wincing as her bad teeth encountered resistance.

"Sometimes I don't know what kept me going." Sue said taking a step back and sitting down. "I think it was Jan really, she needed me. I was always called the den mother of the superhero set you know. That's why I don't mind her with May, I knew that it was time Jan helped someone else survive by being their child. Jan right now is the best doll May will ever have."

"They love playing with each other." Mary Jane admitted. "I've seen May stuffing Jan into hideous looking doll clothes while Jan is saying no, but laughing... they both love it, but Sue; tell me you don't wake up some nights and realized you are hugging a pillow? Crying into it? Yelling into it so no one will hear you?"

"I don't." Sue said firmly.

Mary Jane stood up.

"Well if you ever do, you know where my room is."

"I do." Sue stood up as well. "And thanks, but really I'm ok. Or as ok as any of us can be."

_I do appreciate it Mary Jane._ Sue thought as they walked toward their rooms. _And if you didn't have three kids already hitting your bed every other night I might even take you up on it. But you're their mother, not mine. I deal with what I have to deal with myself._

The next day Sue woke up to the feeling that someone was in the room. The Kree ray gun was in her hand and a force field around her almost before she woke up.

"Don't shoot!" Rebecca shouted ducking.

For an instant Sue didn't remember anything, then it came back to her. She lowered the gun.

"Knock first next time." Sue said.

"Sorry." Rebecca said. She was wearing a pair of cut off jeans and a grey T-shirt. "Mary Jane said to get you, the base computer isn't working."

"I know." Sue said getting up. She stretched, feeling every joint in her body protest. "Tell Mary Jane it's ok, I changed the security codes last night."

"Why?"

"Doom, Fury, Namorita, Mystique." Sue said. She walked into the bathroom and turned on the shower.

"You don't trust them?"

"Nope."

"But they helped us in space, and all that we said..."

"Still don't trust them." Sue said. She rinsed her mouth out, wincing at the pain from her teeth and raised the temperature of the water a little.

"Why not?"

_You need to ask? _Sue wondered. _Two former supervillains, one master spy who lived in the shadows before the Day and Namorita who is so closely related to Namor they might just as well be clones._

"Because I don't." Sue said. "I'll be down in 15 minutes and I'll explain then to everyone."

"Well... ok." Rebecca backed off as Sue took of her nightgown. It wasn't done by accident; Sue had learned that no one wanted to see her body anymore. "We'll talk then?"

"I promise." Sue said stepping into the shower. Rebecca left quickly.

_Hustler once offered me five million to pose nude._ Sue thought as she tried to use the water to bring her mind back to life. It was like that sometimes after a quick wake up. You could be awake, but still not capable of long range thought. Sue thought of it as; "Instinct awake" and it had saved her and Jan many times. But there was always a price. The hot water on her body helped, but the memories did not._ Not even full nude, just a topless shot. Reed, Ben and Johny... God they just didn't know how to react!_ Sue laughed and the laughed turned to cry._ I turned them down, and in the camp the guards would take pictures just for fun. I should have taken the five million and retired. _Sue ran her hands over her body. _I'm not that ugly am I? My breasts were never heavy enough to sag, my hips are ok... but the scars... God what I thinking?_

Resolutely Sue shook off the thoughts as she dressed. That was the tradeoff for waking up instantly, the memories and dreams stayed with you, making your mood match them.

_Tighten it up Sue, we're not safe yet and this won't be easy._

Everyone was eating when Sue walked into the dining room. Her first surprise was Victor and Nick. Not only had they shaved but each mans' hair had been cut. Fury looked his age with deep lines etched into his face and only his square jaw had survived the years intact. Sue wasn't sure how old Nick was, and vaguely remembered an experimental treatment to keep Nick young. Victor looked better, but even his face showed the strain of long torment. Still his face was more distinguished than old. Both of them wore the shapeless blue jumpsuits of Kree mechanics.

"You're looking well." Sue said as she sat down.

"Jarvis was kind enough to attend to us." Victor said.

"I was once a prisoner." Jarvis said. He placed a bowl of soup and a cup of hot chocolate in front of Sue. Jarvis wore a well pressed pair of pants, a shirt and an apron. "I know that appearance is more than just vanity after a years of its denial."

"When were you a prisoner?" Ben asked.

"The Grim Reaper held Jarvis hostage for a few months once." Sue said.

"As you say Mrs. Richards, ancient history." Jarvis said.

Sue nodded as she took a drink from the hot chocolate. Everyone was awake and watching her. Jan was sitting next to May while Ben was sitting on the other side of Rebecca who was sitting next to Nick. Mary Jane was sitting next to Namorita and drawn close to Namorita, almost sitting in her lap was Mystique. Victor sat on the other side of them both. Jan and May were wearing identical clothes, matching yellow halter-tops with short white skirts and a green belt. Ben was just wearing plain jeans and a t-shirt. Namorita was wearing one of Mary Jane's gold sequined evening gowns, the only thing that would fit her taller, fuller frame. Mystique was naked and Sue could see Ben's eyes go to her every so often. Mary Jane, wearing a blue blouse and a pair of grey slacks, noticed it as well.

"Would you like some more sir?" Jarvis asked Victor.

"Please." Victor said handing Jarvis his plate. "I have spent many days dreaming of such food."

"Very good sir."

Sue marveled at the Englishman's manor. Not more than 2 days before he had been flying a ship into battle, the night before he was barely recovered from a fever, now he was serving food. Idly Sue wondered if Jarvis didn't think of both tasks and the fever as just another part of the job. In a way he was the most resilient of them all.

"Why'd you lock out the computer?" Namorita asked as Jarvis left.

"I don't trust any of you." Sue said calmly.

"What?" Rebecca looked up.

"Not you Rebecca." Sue said. "And actually I was really worried about you Namorita."

"Why?" Namorita asked coldly.

"Why did you want to use the system?" Sue asked.

"To contact Atlantis."

"And tell them you were ok." Sue said.

"Of course. Namor's probably thinking I'm dead."

"And once he learned you were alive he'd charge up here to make sure, bringing the Greys and the Sentinels with him." Sue said.

"He wouldn't do that." Namorita protested.

Sue said nothing and took a long drink from her soup.

"Look Sue I know you have problems with him, but Namor would not turn all of you over to the Sentinels."

"He would not have to directly." Victor spoke up. "I have no doubt that Atlantis is riddled with spies for all sides."

"He would have kept it a secret."

"Maybe." Sue said. She kept her voice calm but her hands trembled slightly. "Or he would have found it in the best interest of Atlantis to turn us all in, or lay claim to this base for the use of Atlantis. At the very least him charging toward Antarctica would have piqued someone's curiosity."

"You're not going to let me contact him are you?" Namorita said.

"Not until I know the hyperdrive on one of those ships is fixed and we can get away." Sue said. "After that... go ahead."

"How long will that be?" Namorita demanded hotly. "And what if they can't be fixed?"

"Anything that breaks can be fixed." Ben said. "I fix bikes all the time."

"A bike isn't a hyperdrive." Namorita said. "Look Sue, I know you want to hurt my brother..."

"This has nothing to do with hurting him." Sue said sharply. "It has to do with getting off of this planet in one piece. Even if I let you go to Atlantis what then? I checked the Sentinel communications last night before I went to bed. They knew you were in the Red Skull's palace. They are assuming everyone here blew up in the asteroid belt. The best place for us to hide is in death. If you show up in Atlantis they'll know that they were wrong. They'll start searching. They'll find us."

"So you're going to hold me here?" Namorita demanded. "I'm a prisoner again?"

"Oh come off it!" Sue said harshly. She was loosing her temper and knew it, but couldn't stop herself. "Are you in chains? Are we starving you? We pulled you out of that hell and you owe us for that! Like I said once we get the ships fixed you can go. Until then relax."

"You can't keep me here." Namorita said rising.

"Don't go there." Sue said standing up as well. "Don't you dare go there Namorita. I'm not the woman you knew 14 years ago. I don't have those limits anymore. If you go you put us in danger. You have a choice, either give us a little time to get out of here, you know us, the people who just rescued you and took care of you while you were sick, or selfishly put all of our lives in danger. Don't make the wrong choice."

Sue was trembling in sheer fury and suddenly realized that she did want to fight. The family resemblance to Namor was strong in Namorita and Sue wanted nothing more at that point than to smash out. Everyone was silently watching her, her not Namorita. Ben and May were confused, Rebecca scared and confused, Doom and Fury looked on impassively. Mystique looked desperately for any place to hide.

"Hold on." Mary Jane said. She stood up and put her hand on Namorita's shoulder. "Sue, Namorita, sit down."

Slowly both women sat back down.

"A prisoner is a prisoner." Namorita said.

"Right." Mary Jane said. "And we've all been one. Sue just wants to make sure none of us are again. Victor how long will it take to fix the hyperdrive?"

"At the moment I do not know." Victor said. He talked calmly, as if the tension between the two women did not exist. "I have not studied Kree technology for sometime, I will need to refresh myself with the engineering specifications and theories."

"How long will that take?" Mary Jane asked. "Give me a rough estimate."

"A week, maybe two to determine if I can fix them."

"Ok." Mary Jane said. "So Namorita stays with us for two weeks, then if Victor only needs a few days or another week I think you can give us that Namorita. It's not so long really."

"Two weeks." Namorita said. "Alright. Two weeks. At least your reasons are more honorable than the Skull's." She added bitterly.

Everyone but Sue let out a sigh of relief.

"Why was the Red Skull holding you anyway?" Ben asked. "How come you weren't tortured?"

"Ben." Mary Jane said sharply as Namorita looked down.

"I was tortured." She said.

"There are many ways to inflict torment." Victor said. "In Namorita's case the pain was always psychological. The Skull enjoyed casting her in the role as an overseer, constantly charging her to protect us from him and constantly finding ways for her to fail."

"Why?" Ben asked, earning him a sharp look from his mother.

"Because as long as the Red Skull had Namorita Atlantis had to go on smuggling narcotics to Europe and America." Sue said. "It took me a while to figure it all out, but before I shut down the system last night I read a radio report from the Skull's castle to the Greys. I wanted to be sure they weren't coming after us. The Grey troops, just before they were driven out of the place by Baron Zemo's men, found the narcotics operation and a small squad of Atlantean soldiers who were searching for Namorita. The Skull would make the narcotics, ship them to the ocean through an underground river built by Atlantean tunnellers and then Namor would see to it that they got safely into American and European ports."

"It was a very profitable operation." Nick said. "That's how he was able to buy a lot of SHIELD agents. He had some bright guys working for him, they cooked up L'Dusty, The Mort and Crisis."

Mary Jane's sudden intake of breath at the last word got their attention.

"Crisis came from him?" She asked.

"Who do you think he tested it on?" Nick asked taking another bite of his pancakes."

"What's Crisis?" May asked.

"A drug that induces fear and pleasure at the same time." Sue said. "Very addictive. Nine times out of ten, deadly."

"People take that on purpose?" May asked.

"To some people the joy of life is not enough." Sue said and the irony in her voice was not lost on any of them.

"So he is looking for me." Namorita said. "It wasn't any fun for me the past six years Sue. I had to watch while he tortured Victor and Nick and Mystique."

"No one is saying it hasn't been hard for you." Mary Jane said.

"She is." Namorita said looking at Sue.

"No I'm not." Sue said calmly. "You had to watch 3 people being tortured Namorita. I had to watch far worse."

"Ok so no one's had any fun for a while." Mary Jane said. "Like you said Sue it's over. Let's concentrate on the future ok?"

"Your right." Sue said. She put the cup down and stood up. "In that case I'll go and release the base computer."

Sue was in the control room when Mary Jane walked in with a tray with two cups of steaming hot chocolate.

"Thanks." Sue said sitting back and relaxing as Kree script floated across the display. "You think I was too hard on her don't you."

"Yep." Mary Jane said. "You going to tell me why?"

"Do you know what a sleeper personality is?"

"No."

Sue took another sip from the hot chocolate and relaxed for a moment as the warmth spread through her body.

"It was a favorite ploy of Dr. Faustus. He would take a captive, hypnotize them, implant a second personality and then let them go. That other person was always there, just bellow the surface until it decided the time was right for betrayal. It happened to me once, and my alternate personality nearly killed my family."

"You?" Mary Jane asked.

"Me." Sue nodded. "And Dr. Faustus was known to be closely allied with the Skull a couple of times."

"You think Namorita has one of these things in her?" Mary Jane asked sipping her own drink.

"No, I think Nick does." Sue said. "Or at least he and Mystique are the two most likely. Aside from Dr. Faustus the White Queen has influenced them both, who knows what's in their heads."

"So by acting all mad at Namorita you let them think the coast is clear."

"Right." Sue said. "That and I knew she'd try to contact Namor the first chance she got, and not think about the consequences. I've put in safeguards on the computer here and in the ships. If they try to signal out we'll know."

For a few minutes they sat quietly and sipped their drinks. Then Mary Jane spoke.

"That wasn't all of it though."

"What do you mean?"

"You wanted to tear her apart Sue. And don't tell me I'm wrong."

"You aren't wrong." Sue said after a long sigh. "I look at her and I see her brother. And Franklin. Franklin..." Sue almost dropped the cup, but steadied herself enough to put it on the console. Then she leaned forward, folding her arms on the console and placing her head against them. Her body seemed to sag under a great weight and her voice was muffled but full of pain. "The Greys showed me the recording of Namor turning Franklin over to them. I hoped it was a fake at first, but I knew it wasn't. Franklin tried to escape and Namor stopped him."

Sue sat up and wiped away the tears that running down her face. More tears replaced them. "They used to taunt me, telling me he was dead, he was alive, that they had brainwashed him to come over to their side... they'd show me fingers and arms and legs, and once even genitals... and say they were his..."

Mary Jane hugged her but Sue pulled away from her and got to her feet.

"Namor..." Sue started and then stopped. With an effort that barely succeeded Sue pulled herself together.

"So yea I was a little hard on her." Sue said roughly. "And yes, maybe there is a part of me that hopes Namor is having some sleepless nights."

"So will you let her leave?" Mary Jane asked.

"I don't know." Sue said. "I could take her of course, I know how to fight Atlanteans, but I don't want to."

"But you will." Mary Jane said.

"To keep us all safe, yes." Sue said. She walked back over and sat down, once more in control. "But if I think I can trust her I will let her go."

"How will we know?" Mary Jane asked.

"I have no idea." Sue said, taking a long drink from her cup. "The fact that she already tried to contact him shows me that Namorita really doesn't know what is going on in the world. She's been the Skull's prisoner for a long time, so maybe she doesn't. I'll let her look at what we've looked at, maybe then she'll get the idea and I'll be able to trust her."

"And if not?"

Sue put her cup back on the tray.

"Mary Jane... in space, when we were all sick, Ben and May took care of us, took care of the ship and I'm pretty sure stopped Mystique from killing herself." Sue took hold of Mary Jane's hands. "Then they helped me blow up an asteroid. I never saw them cry or complain... You can be so proud of them... I swore I'd blow up a planet if I had to before I'd let the Sentinels get either of them."

"I am proud of them." Mary Jane said.

"Right." Sue replied. She pulled back and entered a new sequence into the computer. "So if keeping them safe means I have to chain Namorita to a wall for a while, then that is what I will do."

"And the others?"

"I'm the Invisible Woman. I'll watch them."

The pale look on Namorita's face that afternoon told Sue that she had been right. Namorita had no idea what had been going on in the United States and the rest of the world.

"How could all that happen so quickly?" she asked.

"Civilization is always perched upon the edge of a cliff." Victor said. "A push is all that is needed."

"And I know who did part of the pushing." Nick said bitterly.

They were all in the control room, Victor, Namorita, Nick, Mystique and Sue. Mary Jane and Sue had decided that all of the former captives needed updating. Sue had cleared enough of the drawings away and arranged the chairs in front of the largest monitor, then she had replayed news reports and Grey and Sentinel messages. It took only four hours to document the downfall of the United States Government, the conquest of Canada, Mexico and all of South America. She hadn't pulled any punches in explaining what the Greys and Sentinels had done to mutants, mutant sympathizers or anyone else they hadn't liked. It had stunned even Fury, who had seen the start of it all.

"That is where things stood almost a year ago." Sue said pointing to a multicolored map of the American continent. "Just before my son and those who were left of the Xmen attacked the Baxter building. This part of the world is ruled by various warlords and basically whoever can grab onto power and hold it. Europe's old empires have re-asserted themselves, but their tech base is declining. The Sentinels and the Greys make sure that anti-technology propaganda goes with the anti-mutant propaganda. I'm pretty sure they have a covert hypnosis program for children underway. Time is slowly being turned back to the year 1900. Maybe even before then."

"I should'a died." Nick said.

"Dying solves nothing." Victor said.

"It's an escape." Mystique argued. She was sitting on the floor next to Namorita's chair. Namorita reached down and stroked her hair.

"None of us were lucky enough to die Nick." Sue said.

"What of England?" Victor asked.

"A big question mark." Sue said. "No one who ever goes in comes out again."

"Magic." Victor concluded.

"Most likely." Sue agreed. "If I hadn't managed to find this place England was mine and Jan's next stop. Before we busted all of you out of the Red Skull's palace the biggest problem the world was having was the A.I.M./Hydra war going on in the Northwest United States. Both of them have been using bio-warfare units."

"Who leads them?" Victor asked.

"I don't know." Sue said. "I know that Modok isn't leading A.I.M., he's stuffed and mounted in the Grey's museum in New York. The Sentinels have taken out all of the old supervillains."

"How?" Namorita asked. "They were so powerful, without the Avengers, the Fantastic Four..."

"The Sentinels knew when and how to hit their targets." Sue said. "Superhero and supervillain. Didn't matter."

"SHIELD files." Nick said. "We kept them in case..."

"In case you ever had to kill us." Sue said coldly.

"Capture." Nick argued, but it was in a weak voice.

"But the Juggernaught, Tiger Shark..." Namorita protested. "How did they do it? Juggernaught was invincible!"

"They did it by not caring who got hurt in the process." Sue said. "The morality and concern for human life that would stop the Avengers from taking out a supervillain doesn't exist in the Sentinels or the Greys. Take the Purple Man. He managed to get to a small town in Utah with the Sentinels right on his tail. He used his mind control powers to make the towns people fight for him. So the Sentinels incinerated the entire town. Juggernaught was shot into the sun along with 2 square miles of Los Angeles. He might still be alive, but in the center of the sun."

"But why let Hydra and the rest stay around?" Namorita said. "It doesn't make any sense."

"It does." Nick said. "A kind of sick sense."

Sue was glad that the base didn't have any sort of alcohol, Nick Fury looked like he'd kill to get drunk.

"The Sentinels programming is to prevent further mutation." Victor said. "To do this they impose strict rules. A democracy would not able to enforce such rules, a dictatorship, whoever lead it, would have little trouble. I suspect as long as proper tribute and acquiesces is given to the Sentinels anti-mutant programs there is no trouble staying in power."

"He's right." Sue said.

"Then why leave the Red Skull in charge of half of Africa?" Namorita demanded. "He was experimenting with drugs all the time, wouldn't that be a risk of causing mutation?"

"I hadn't thought of that." Sue said. "I have no idea..."

"He was a tool." Victor said. "Though I am not even sure he was aware of it."

"How so?" Sue asked.

"His drugs were primarily distributed to European ports." Victor said. "I know well those drugs and their effects. They are highly addictive, ultimately destructive. Imagine a society with almost the entirety of its people addicted; then imagine that society cut off from that addiction. Chaos follows, the government either cracks down or falls, and in either case the Greys and the Sentinels will either move in and set up a puppet or simply take over. It will take years and doubtless cost many lives, but it is possible."

"And Atlantis stays safe." Sue said coldly.

Namorita started to say something and then stopped.

"I suspect the Mandarin's China is the only nation safe from such a tactic." Victor said. "He would see such a method and block it."

"Well now Zemo will move in and take it up again." Nick said.

"He won't find it as easy." Victor said. "Without the help of the Atlanteans to smuggle the drugs."

"Namor was only helping the Red Skull because the Skull had me." Namorita said. "He grabbed me while I was in Europe."

"One Atlantean life is worth far more than millions of surface scum." Sue said in an imitation of the Sub-mariner's tone.

"That's not fair." Namorita said coldly.

"That's the state of the world as it is now." Sue said. "That's why we're leaving."

Namorita looked like she was going to say something again but decided against it.

"Well that's it." Sue said. "You can each pick a terminal and read all you want about the world."

"I've seen enough." Nick said standing up. "I'd kill for a drink or a smoke." Clearly shaken he stood up and walked out of the control room.

"I'm going to learn more." Namorita stood up and went to a terminal. "I can't believe it's all that bad."

Without a word Mystique followed her. Sue looked at Victor who was lost in thought.

"Wheels still turning Victor?" Sue asked.

"Yes." he said simply. "But even I am shocked at the state of the planet. It is as you said Susan; our stage has been destroyed and I can only marvel now at how petty some of the great battles and feuds were."

"The supervillains' won." Sue said.

"Your tone accuses me."

"Doom needs no one." Sue quoted. "Humanity is a group of sheep desperately seeking a strong hand to guide them; the hand of Doom. Doom will destroy the Fantastic Four!" Sue sighed. "Replace the word: "Doom" with "Sentinel".

"Do you truly think that even at my worst I would have done this to the world?"

"To kill Reed you would have destroyed a galaxy." Sue said. "You said as much every time we battled. The only two beings in the Doom universe were Doom and Reed Richards. Everyone else was just the supporting cast."

"I did not desire his death." Victor said, keeping his voice steady. Sue wondered if her words had actually hurt him. There was a slight tightening of his face as she talked of the old days. "Not always. Not until I showed him my superiority."

"The truly superior do not have to prove it." Sue said. "Reed said that to you, to the Kree, the Skrull, half a dozen would-be gods..."

"I only heard the self serving words of an inferior." Victor said. "Yes, there were times I did want him dead. My desire for power and vengeance was overwhelming and my continual failure achieve them..."

"Was in the end self destructive." Sue finished.

"True." Victor said. "Had I not become involved with the mutants the Red Skull might not have engineered my downfall, a defeat far more complete than any I had suffered due to the Fantastic Four. It is ironic that Reed and I were brought low at the same time in the same way."

"The same way?"

"Trust. Reed with his trust of SHIELD, I with my trust in my own destiny."

"Reed always said that you two were equal Victor." Sue said tiredly. "You were the one who had to push it. Reed and the rest of us stood between you and what you wanted, and you could never stand that. You had to have the world, no matter what the cost."

"I did have to." Doom said. "There was in me always the desire to rule, yet how could I rule in comfort with the suspicion that another could rule better? That I could not abide. And from the start Reed challenged me, haunted me."

"That accident wasn't his fault." Sue said. "And I'm amazed that all you got from it was a little scar. Makes the mask seem silly when you think about it."

"If there is a mar on an object that object is not perfect. I could be no less than perfect. That experiment was the first time in my life that I experienced failure. In my mind I could not accept that I had made the mistake."

"And now? After it's all over and Reed's dead?"

Victor Von Doom looked at her and for the first time Sue saw honest pain in his eyes.

"When I learned of Latveria's fate Susan I accepted the fact that the myth of Doom was my true failure. The armor I wore, the strength I boasted of, the iron will that would lead me to rule not only the world, but all creation... died when the Red Skull whipped me in chains through the radioactive waste that was my homeland. Once I accepted that I accepted your husbands innocence."

"Did you ever wish for death Victor?" Sue asked. She glanced over to where Mystique sat next to Namorita.

"No." Doom said. "For a time I wished for vengeance. But never, not even in my darkest days as I watched the Red Skull reduce Mystique to what she is now, never did I wish to die. I wished to prove to myself that at least part of the myth of Doom was true, that he could not be killed. I supposed that little shard of vanity kept me alive."

"And what now?" Sue asked. "To conquer and rule?"

"To rule and repair." Victor countered. "It is what your husband would do were he still alive."

_Son of a... _The shock of his words rippled up and down Sue's heart like an Earthquake. _How dare he! Reed..._

It took a few seconds for Sue to realize that Victor hadn't spoken the words as a challenge or a condemnation. In fact he wasn't even looking at her. His eyes were staring at the images of destruction still displayed on the monitors. For a moment Sue almost hit him. Then she clamped down on her emotions, ruthlessly pinning them into another part of her.

_Is he still Dr. Doom? Is he just playing me? Damn-it how can I be sure? What if he's sincere? Reed always said Victor had potential..._

The words and memory of her late husband stopped Sue's thoughts cold. She almost didn't hear what Victor said next.

"Reed Richards would have succeeded. I must acknowledge that fact. Perhaps this is our last contest, though he is long since passed from the world. If he would have at least tried, how can I not do the same? And I wonder, Susan, do I do it for the sake of Dr. Doom? Victor Von Doom? Or the millions who I once thought so beneath me? Does humiliation and defeat breed nobility?"

_When you know the answer to that question Victor, _Sue thought, _I'll know if I can trust you or not. But are you talking to yourself or are you talking to me? Is the old Dr. Doom still in there pulling the strings?_

"Are motives important?" Sue countered.

"Your husband always maintained they were. Once I would not have thought so." Victor said. "Now I have many questions."

"Find the answers when you can." Sue said. "First fix the hyperdrives."

"That part of me has not changed Susan." Victor said reaching for the console that linked to the computer. "My word is still my bond."

Sue nodded and walked away.

_IS HE PLAYING ME????_ That question echoed in Sue's mind for the rest of the day. That and the memories of Reed that Victor's talk had brought to the surface.

For a few hours after that talk Sue stood invisibly in the console room and watched Doom and Namorita. Every now and then Namorita would stop a report, mumble to herself and then move on. Mystique had gone off with May and Jan, at Mary Jane's request, so that they could find some clothing for her. Left alone Namorita threw herself into her self appointed study. At times she paled at the scene relayed to her on the monitor screen. Doom absorbed page after page of Kree writing and technical diagrams. They passed in front of his eyes at such a fast rate that Sue could barely follow them. Victor sat quietly, only occasionally whispering to himself. He reminded her so much of Reed that Sue had to turn away and look out of the window.

From the control room Sue could look out on the entire base. Bellow her was the main building entrance, on either side were the skeletal dry-docks that held the Kree ships. Parked next to one of the ships was an Avengers Quinjet, most likely the last one in existence. The natural cavern that the base was built into was huge. It was lit by hundreds of sunlamps that hung from the roof. From the round central building branched out smaller buildings filled with supplies. Beyond one of the ships Sue could see a small section that she had set up as a training camp for Rebecca.

Nick Fury walked out of the building. From the window she watched as he walked aimlessly around the base. Head bent, shoulders slumped he stopped in front of the Avengers Quinjet. For a few minutes he stood and looked at the giant "A" on the tail. Then he slumped to the ground and put his head in his hands.

"You guys hungry?" Rebecca asked coming into the control room. Sue turned around and saw that it was nearly noon. Rebecca came into the control room carrying a tray of sandwiches and cups of milk. She was wearing a simple blue tunic with a gold belt.

"To have more than one meal a day will take a bit of re-adaptation." Victor said taking the glass of milk. "But I think it is one I will enjoy."

"Anything to get away from this." Namorita said shoving herself away from the screen.

"Yea, it's bad out there." Rebecca said. "It wasn't so bad for us, Las Vegas is an ok place."

"But everything else..." Namorita took a bite out of her sandwich. "It's like I'm looking at a different planet."

"That's why Sue and Mary Jane are taking us away." Rebecca said.

"You don't want to stay and fix it?" Namorita asked.

"How? The Sentinels killed my parents... everyone. I wanted to fight them, but Sue says we can't win."

"That's her opinion."

_Trolling for allies Namorita? _Sue thought. She held her place and her silence, but it was difficult.

"She saved us all from the Red Skull's men." Rebecca said, her voice turning hard. "Your brother didn't lift a finger to help anyone."

"Her brother is a monarch." Victor said before Namorita could speak. "As a former monarch I can attest that the luxury of standing on principle and acting from personal desires is a rare one."

"That's a cop out." Rebecca said. "That's what people in power always say when they're too scared to do anything. If you believe in something you risk everything for it. That's what my dad used to tell me and he wasn't scared of anything."

"My brother wasn't scared." Namorita protested.

"Then why didn't he do anything?" Rebecca demanded. "The Avengers saved Atlantis a million times, put your brother back on the throne... saved you from marrying Atuma..."

"They didn't have the responsibility of a nation." Namorita said.

"No, just the world." Rebecca shot back.

They were ready to come to blows and Sue wondered if she should step in. But Mary Jane appeared at the doorway.

"Rebecca are you in here?" she called.

Sue smiled. Mary Jane knew exactly where Rebecca was.

_And to think they used to call me a den mother. _Sue thought. _Mary Jane has me beat._

"Right here Mary Jane." Rebecca said.

"Can you do me a favor and bring some food out to Nick? I need to talk to Victor about something."

"Ok." Rebecca said and with a teen-aged look at Namorita left.

"Nick's very depressed." Mary Jane said after Rebecca left. "I hope she can bring him out of it."

"Mary Jane do you blame my brother for not helping when the Sentinels attacked?"

"No." Mary Jane said after a pause. "Not like Sue does, but then he didn't turn my son over to the Greys."

"I didn't know about that." Namorita said. "I was prisoner of Sa-Attuma, Attuma's son for years, by the time Namor defeated him it was all over. I had no idea what had happened."

"Well Sue isn't mad at you." Mary Jane said. "She just wants to make sure we're all safe."

"She doesn't trust me." Namorita said. "I used to date Johny, Sue knows me, I wouldn't do anything to harm any of you."

_You dumped him._ Sue thought. _But Johny got over it, it's not that I don't trust you Namorita, it's that I don't dare trust anyone._

"Not intentionally, but Sue's been through stuff that's worse than any of you can understand. I know, "she said holding up a hand as they started to protest "the Red Skull was as evil as they come, but what they did to Sue and Jan..."

"The Skull was a sadist." Namorita said.

"So are the Greys." Mary Jane said. "But even before they got to her Sue was held by the Sentinels."

"She has a point." Victor said. "A robot works from its program. If you direct your research to what the Sentinels do to newly capture mutants, I think you will find that Susan has indeed gone through worse than even we can imagine."

Namorita shrugged and went back to her own console.

For a moment Sue moved to stop her, then she stopped herself. She really didn't want anyone to know what had happened to her while she held by the Sentinels. The humiliations they had heaped upon her had seemed bad at the time, but she knew now they had been merely a prologue to the true hell to come. Still she didn't want Namorita's or anyone else's pity.

_But what the hell. _ Sue thought as she turned to the window again. _A couple of hundred people must have seen the recordings already... the Greys told me they'd use it as a training film._

"I'm still worried about Nick." Mary Jane said.

"He bears a self-imposed burden of guilt." Victor said. "In time it should lift."

"I hope so." Mary Jane said. "I know how busy you'll be with the ships, but I'd like to ask you a favor."

"I owe you much." Victor said. "A favor seems a small price to ask for repayment."

"Ben and May haven't been to school for a while now, I was wondering if you could set up some sort of learning program for them on the base computer, teach them how to read and speak Kree."

"Kree?" Victor asked.

"Well, if we are going to live out there we should at least know one of the languages, besides Ben has been itching to play with the computers on the base and May wants to learn how to use the medical center. Either someone teaches them or they experiment on their own, and that's dangerous."

_I never thought of that. _Sue thought as she looked out at Nick and Rebecca. She was sitting with Nick, a tray of food between them. _I've been so focused on getting away I never thought about anything else._

Nick and Rebecca were arguing about something. Turning from the window Sue walked toward the lift. Rebecca didn't seem to be getting anyplace with Nick, but Sue had an idea of what could help. She had just gotten to the lift when it opened and Ben, May, Jan and Mystique came charging off. Mystique and Jan were naked.

"Mom!" May called. "Ben's been spying on us again!"

"I have not!" Ben protested.

"I saw him outside the window when Jan and I were making clothes for Mystique, he was trying to see Jan naked again!"

"I was not!" Ben protested again.

"He was too! And last night I caught him trying to spy on Rebecca!"

Sue couldn't stop the smile from coming onto her face as the lift doors closed.

Rebecca was walking toward the main entrance when Sue reached the door. A puzzled and somewhat frustrated look was on her face.

"Trouble?" Sue asked.

"I don't know." Rebecca said. She looked back at Nick who was sitting with his back against one of the Quinjet's tires. "I said I was sorry about calling him a traitor and all that. I mean it wasn't his fault."

"He's probably still in a bit of shock." Sue said. "After all up until a few days ago he was a prisoner and he never expected anyone to rescue him."

"I guess." Rebecca said shrugging.

"You up for a workout?" Sue asked.

"Yea, ok."

"Go get changed, I'll talk to Nick and meet you by the targets in about ten minutes."

"Right."

_Lead isn't as dense as a teenager._ Sue thought as she walked over to Nick. _God I wish I was that young again. I bet Nick does too._

"Odd place to be." Sue said coming up to him.

"No normal places any more is there?" Nick said. Sue sat down next to him. "What you got?"

It was a small box, un-marked. Still sitting near the bed where Ben Grimm had left it a lifetime ago. Sue had made herself walk into that room, pushed through the ghosts of a time long since past and found what she knew would be there.

"Nobody else here smokes." She said opening the lid of the box as she handed it too him.

"Cuban!" Nick said, surprised. He took the cigar, delighted for a moment, then a cloud came over his face and he put it back. "Grimm's."

"He never told any of us how he got them." Sue said. "And he wouldn't mind Nick."

If he was here he'd stuff my butt into the engine and turn it on." Nick said bitterly.

"He might have, if he didn't know the truth." Sue said. "A few weeks ago I would have."

"You gonna tell me it's not my fault?" Nick said. "When they give you the ball you don't drop it."

"You do if they whack you on the head after you get it." Sue said. She put the cigar box in front of him. "Look Nick we both know it wasn't your fault. Maybe you could have done something different, maybe I could have. But we didn't. Beating ourselves up won't do any good." Sue stood up. "Do what you want with the cigars, just don't let Ben try any or Mary Jane will kill you."

As Sue had guessed Rebecca came out of the main building and headed over toward the targets. She was wearing cut-off jeans and a T-shirt. Sue didn't miss Fury's reaction at the sight of Rebecca with Captain America's shield.

"She wants to be what her parents were." Sue said. "So does Ben. Mary Jane isn't happy about it, but she's letting me train them anyway."

Sue stood up and walked over toward Rebecca without looking back.

It took no more than one cigar for Nick Fury to join them. He stood and watched for a few minutes as Rebecca worked her way through the improvised obstacle course Sue had worked out. Rebecca went through it once, twice and halfway through the third go through Nick spoke up.

"Roll your legs in tighter." he called as Rebecca landed wrong. "Don't fight the ground, roll with it."

"You want to take over?" Sue asked.

"Dirty trick." Nick said taking the cigar out of his mouth. His voice was gruff, but his eye was shining with the gratitude he'd never say aloud. And suddenly Sue wasn't talking to Nick Fury, but to Ben Grimm: the Thing. The walking pile of orange rock who could shatter boulders and buildings with one punch, but who became a mute statue when any sort of honest expression of emotion or gratitude was called for. Sue's entire being shuddered at the memories that pounded against her mind, but she kept herself together. Ben, as Nick, would never tolerate emotional displays between two people.

"You need to get into shape too." Sue said. "But take it easy, she's young and your old."

"I ain't that old." Nick said.

"But she's that young." Sue said. "And she's no marine recruit."

Nick nodded.

"What's up?" Rebecca asked coming over to them.

"Nick's going to take over for a while Rebecca." Sue said. "He knows some moves that I don't."

"Ok." Rebecca said not realizing at all what was going on.

While Nick started to explain to Rebecca what she was doing wrong Sue walked around to the entrance of the building. It was only when she was out of sight that she collapsed against the side of the doorway, wiping tears from her eyes. Her lapse in control lasted only a minute or two; then she pulled herself together and walked into the building. She almost didn't see Mary Jane waiting by the lift.

"He can train them better than I can." Sue said.

"I guess." Mary Jane said. "Ben wants to practice web slinging in an hour."

"I'll be ready." Sue said. "For now I'll keep an eye on Namorita."

Sue turned invisible just as Namorita and Mystique walked into the lift. Mystique was wearing a gold bikini, or rather cloth shaped like a bikini that was draped over her shoulders and around her waist. If she moved the wrong way everything could be seen, but Sue suspected it was the best May and Jan could do. Namorita leaned on her, clearly tired.

"You need to rest mistress." Mystique said.

"Raven you don't have to call me that." Namorita said as Mystique pushed the button.

"No one else is here mistress." Mystique said flinching at the name.

"Raven." Namorita started and Sue saw Mystique shy away. "It's ok if I use your real name. No one will hurt you."

"The Red Skull will." Mystique said in a voice that reminded Sue of Jan when they first escaped. It was the voice of an abused child, someone who not only expects pain but also is puzzled when no pain is forthcoming. "He gave me to you, he'll be mad if..."

"He's dead." Namorita said. "We both saw his head cut off."

The door to the lift opened and they both stepped through it with Sue right behind them.

"He's been dead before." Mystique said. "He comes back."

"Not this time." Namorita said.

Mystique had a point Sue knew. The Red Skull had been reported dead dozens of times, but always seemed to come back.

"The point is Rav... Mystique, that you're free, you don't have to serve me, you can do what you want."

"I want to serve you mistress." Mystique said as they came to the door of their room. The look of fear on her face was tragic as she paused. "Don't you want me to... I need to serve you mistress... there is nothing else for me."

They went inside and Sue hesitated only for a moment before following them. Mystique helped Namorita over to the bed.

"I'll run a bath for you mistress." Mystique said.

"Raven wait." Namorita said. Taking hold of her arm she pulled Mystique down to the bed. Mystique squirmed slightly but did not pull away. "Think back, before the Red Skull captured you. You weren't a servant."

"No... please." Mystique started to cry. "I can't remember, he'll punish me if I remember. Please, let me draw your bath..."

"He's dead." Namorita insisted, almost pleading. "You're free. Really free."

"I don't want to be free." Mystique insisted. "I never want to be free. I was free when I killed all those people, I was free when I started the wars... If I'm free I'm evil, if I'm a slave I'm good."

Sue felt a tug at her heart as Mystique said that last sentence. It was not merely said, it was recited by rote. Sue suddenly had a full vision of the endless days of torture the Red Skull must have put Mystique through. He had taken her at nearly the same time Sue had been captured. That meant at least ten years of concentrated torture from a truly sick mind. Sue had been through many hands, with many different tastes in sadism. Mystique had known only one. One truly dedicated sick mind that had full power over her and had set as a goal the complete destruction of Mystique as a person. The Skull, like the Hitler-god he worshiped, thought of women as ornaments. Pretty things to be used or tossed away. Mystique was a leader in her own right, intelligent, strong, everything the Red Skull despised in a woman. He would have torn her down in a way he would not have done for Victor or Nick. Sue almost cried and wondered if Namorita really knew how lucky she was. If the Skull had not needed her whole to show Namor her torture would have matched Mystique's.

Namorita seemed to see it as well. With a sigh she let Mystique go.

"Draw the bath." She said.

"Thank you mistress." Mystique said and hurried into the bathroom before Namorita could change her mind.

After a few minutes Namorita got off of the bed, pulled off her jumpsuit and followed Mystique into the bathroom. Namorita was older, but Sue could see no scars on her body and her breasts were still firm and high upon her chest. Sue swallowed her anger at both Mystique and herself.

_Just because she doesn't show them doesn't mean they aren't there._ Sue told herself sternly. But a part of her didn't listen.

Only a few of the rooms in the base had anything but showers. Mary Jane had thoughtfully put Namorita and Mystique into one of them. The bathroom was larger than Sue's was with a tub that was deep and long. Sue suspected that the room was supposed to be used for visiting dignitaries. She hadn't chosen it because it was too near the rooms that she and the rest of the Fantastic Four had once used. The tub was metal, five feet wide and at least ten feet long. By the time Namorita entered the bathroom it was nearly filled.

"At least you can wear clothes again." Namorita said. Mystique had shed her own clothes and in the light of the bathroom Sue saw her scars, and realized that they mostly formed swastika-like patterns. Her breasts did sag. The picture of mistress and slave irritated Sue.

"May and Jan are nice." Mystique said. "The fabric doesn't hurt. I didn't like the way Mary Jane kept looking at me."

"She's got a son to think of. Be more worried about the way Ben is looking at you." A look of peace came to Namorita's face as she settled into the water. "A bath. It's been so long."

"Will she asked me to serve him?" Mystique asked, not keeping the fear out of her voice. "Like I served Nick and Victor and you?"

"She's not the Skull Mystique." Namorita said gently. "She'd never ask you to do anything you didn't want to do."

Namorita settled back and sighed, closing her eyes. Mystique picked up a cloth and started to run it along Namorita's arm.

"What about the Invisible Woman?"

"She hates Namor and she's using me to hurt him." Namorita said. "But I can't do anything about that now, I'm too weak to fight her."

"It's nice here."

"That's another reason we'll stay for a bit."

Mystique moved the washing cloth over Namorita's shoulders and started to move down. Sue waited for Namorita to stop Mystique, but Namorita seemed lost in the moment. Sue could understand that. Luxury was tempting, especially to someone who had been imprisoned for so long. But as Mystique moved the cloth onto her breast Namorita stopped her.

"No Mystique."

"But..." Mystique was clearly confused. "I have too..."

"You don't have to serve me that way." Namorita said.

"But before..."

"That was the L'Dusty." Namorita said. "We didn't have a choice."

L'Dusty was an incredibly strong aphrodisiac. It was one of the designer drugs that the Red Skull had perfected and sold. The powder was very expensive, highly addictive and very sadistic. Once exposed to it a person would be thrust into lustful state that could last from minutes to hours to even days. It drove that person to have sex with anyone, anything in sight and if a partner was not available it caused the heart to literally explode. Sue had never been exposed to it, but she had seen a guard try to give it to Jan once. She had fought him and the powder had been thrown into the river. Some of it had gotten on him in the struggle and he had raped her again and again until Sue managed to crush his windpipe. A sudden stab of sympathy for Namorita filled Sue.

"I didn't have any dust." Mystique said. "The Red Skull commanded me to please you." She pulled her arm away and sat down. "I didn't please you. I'm sorry mistress."

"Mystique..." Namorita started to speak and then trailed off. "It's ok. You did please me. The L'Dusty simply... helped."

"I did please you?" Mystique asked reaching over with the washcloth again.

"Yes you did." Namorita said, catching Mystique's wrist and holding it gently. "But neither of us is in shape to do that again. Not now."

It was a dodge, Sue could tell that, but she knew that Mystique could not.

"For now why don't you see what Jarvis is making us for dinner." Namorita suggested.

"Leave you alone?" Mystique asked, her voice trembling slightly. "But, you'll need to be dried after your bath."

"I'll wait right here until you get back." Namorita said. "Now go."

The command was unmistakable and Mystique responded. Sue followed her out, slipping through the door before it closed. Namorita was weaker than she wanted everyone else to know, Sue could hear that in her voice. But she also heard genuine concern for Mystique and sadness for what the Red Skull had done to her friend. Sue still wasn't sure she could trust the Atlantean, but at least Sue thought she could start to think about whether or not to trust her.

"That poor woman." Mary Jane said.

It was late. Sue and Mary Jane sat in the control room. Mary Jane had come with a pair of cups filled with hot chocolate. On the screen in front of them a commentator for some French television network spoke and above his shoulder was an image of the Red Skull's palace. The palace was a smoking wreck and above it was the flag of Baron Zemo. Sue had told Mary Jane what she had overheard.

"I'm glad I killed him." Sue agreed. "Mystique could easily be me or Jan, and she's closer to Jan than me."

"Do you think either of them could ever recover?"

"I don't know." Sue said. "Jan suffered some sort of brain damage, either from the nails or the fever or the infection. With the right medical treatment maybe she could recover. But Mystique... The Red Skull took her apart and he had over a decade to do it."

"And she's completely hooked into Namorita?"

"Yep." Sue took a long drink from her cup. "Obeying the last command of the Red Skull. I only hope that Namorita has the self control to keep trying to help her, not use her."

"Still don't trust her?"

"I'm not sure." Sue saw the picture change on the monitor and she spoke a word in Kree. They heard a translation of the French newsman's words.

"Though there was a fierce pitched battle between three armies, Atlantean, American and the troops of Baron Zemo, there still remains no clear winner. Baron Zemo has laid claim to what is left of the Red Skull's palace and has formed an alliance with the Atlantean forces under Namor. There is no word yet on the terms of the alliance."

"I know we can't trust Namor." Sue said. She winced as the hot chocolate hit her tooth.

"We're doing ok Sue." Mary Jane said putting her hand on Sue's shoulder. "You've gotten us this far."

"We've gotten us this far." Sue said. She shut off the monitor. "Too far to take chances or let our guard down."

"You need to get some sleep." Mary Jane said. Sue stood up and they walked toward the lift. "I'm still wiped out from that fever, I know you're tired too."

"Cosmic blood." Sue said smiling.

Mary Jane shook her head.

"Sheer stubbornness."

"Whatever." Sue said as they got into the lift.

It was raining. Sue wasn't sure how or why she knew that, but she knew it. She didn't know where she was. It was cold, frigid and as Sue became more aware of herself and her surroundings she shivered. She was laying down on something hard and icy. Naked. It brought back memories of the hard aluminum slab that she had been strapped to after her capture. But there were no cold, analytic voices to chill her soul. Nor was she blindfolded. She felt a wind, a warm one cascade over her body and heard in the distance more wind howling.

Sue opened her eyes and sat up. She was on a raised stone slab in a graveyard. The graveyard was ancient and un-cared for. But it was not tombstones that marked the graves, but statues. Around her, clearly seen in the light of a sun that gave no heat, were heroes and heroines. Some statues were stone, some were metal, some seemed to be made of wax. They were pitted and scared by the ages. Spiders made webs between arms and legs, bats hung from faces, moths nested in ears.

The graveyard was endless. From one horizon to the other the statues stood facing her. The looks on those faces she could read were full of anger and hate. Accusation.

Vainly Sue tried to think of words to say, words of denial or words to comfort the dead. Before she could utter a syllable some of the statues seemed to move. With a sound that scalded Sue's soul, snakes and worms emerged from every pit or scar gouged out of the statue's bodies by ages of weather. With a noise that could only be described as unholy they started toward her. They seemed to speak, but not in voices that were even vaguely human. But Sue understood the voices. She understood their anger and their pain. They were the cries of the damned and they were calling to her. Calling to her to join them at long last.

Sue tried to stand and to run, but suddenly solid black metal chains were on her ankles and wrist. She screamed as they pulled her back down to the solid stone, pulling her arms and legs apart until she was a helpless giant human X. The air turned fetid and ghastly as the worms and the snakes reached her slab. Before it had been ice cold, now it was red hot and Sue felt her skin begin to roast. The snakes reached her first, moving up her legs, forcing their way into her womb. She could hear them laughing at her pain. She screamed as the vermin breached her body, only to have those screams cut off as the worms filled her mouth. Breaking the chains Sue tore at them all.

Sue woke up soaked in sweat and tearing at the last remnants of her pillow. Her mind was a complete blank. The nightmare had fled to wherever nightmares go. She tried to get up but her limbs betrayed her and she fell off of the bed and onto the floor. Crawling on her hands and knees Sue made it to the bathroom in time to throw up. Feeling dirty, violated and ashamed, Sue climbed into the shower and turned on the hot water. She stayed there, setting the water first hot and then cold and then hot again until it was time to get up.

Sue was used to going without sleep for long periods. But there was a difference between a lack of sleep and being afraid too sleep. Sue found she was actually frightened at the thought of closing her eyes.

She could never remember the form of the nightmares, whatever happened to her in them vanished from her memory when she woke up. But she knew they were horrible. Far more than horrible, far more than any hell Sue had ever known. To escape them Sue stayed away from her bed, taking naps when she could find the time. But naps were only a stopgap solution. And, if Sue admitted it only to herself, the times she fell asleep were not so much naps as they were Sue passing out from exhaustion.

Victor had responded to Mary Jane's request and found a set of language lessons in the base's computer. Nick sat in on the lessons, though he was still non-commital about his plans for the future. Namorita and Mystique spent time in either their room or the control room watching the images of the world. Namorita was often sullen but she hadn't made any attempts to contact her brother.

Perhaps the oddest thing that happened was that Sue found herself working as Victor's assistant as he studied the ships. The way the systems were laid out it took at least two people to run tests. Sue had done it alone by going through each system one at a time, and cursing as she had done so. It was Victor who showed her the basic procedural step that could have avoided a system by system start up.

Sue spent a good part of the initial morning with him cursing herself.

"The sequence is running." Sue said in the communicator.

"Acknowledged." Victor said.

Sue leaned back in the chair. She was on the flight deck of Hero's Ark and Victor was in the engine room. Around her the ship hummed quietly to itself. Outside Rebecca practiced her shield throwing, Mary Jane supervised Ben and May as they played the game with Jan. Jarvis and Nick were playing poker on the wing of the Quinjet. On the monitor to her right Sue could see Mystique and Namorita in the control room. Namorita had not once tried to contact Namor, and hadn't spoken about it to Mystique. Namorita had also managed to gently handle Mystique's condition, letting her do enough to satisfy her, but not so much that Mystique was her complete slave. Sue was starting to trust her.

"Sequence change." Sue said, as the read out on her other monitor shifted. "It's showing N1 at 34% green, N2 at 55% green and n5-n15 at fluctuating levels of nSpace intrusion."

"Acknowledged." Victor said again.

_It would help if I knew what the hell I was talking about! _Sue thought.

That wasn't exactly true and she knew it. Victor had told them all, at considerable length, how the hyperdrives worked. The principle was easy enough to gasp. He had told them to imagine the universe as a vast sea. "Reality", for lack of a better term, was the water. Hyperspace was the air, and it was far easier to travel through the air than the water. The Kree hyperdrives were a set of crystals that, when energy was applied, vibrated at a certain rate, creating a large field that lifted the ship out of normal space and into hyperspace. There was only a thin ribbon of hyperspace through which it was safe for a ship to travel through.

Victor had started to explain it when they sat down to eat dinner. His explanation had been full of mathematical expressions and abstract theories of space and time. Sue had been forced many times to stop him so that she could explain what he had just said. She watched him during those times. The old Doom had been enraged that anyone would dare interrupt him. Victor did not seem to mind. At least Sue could not tell for sure if he did or not.

He had lectured for hours and Sue at last had to stop him by politely pointing out that Ben and May were starting to nod off, and Jan and Mystique were already asleep. Victor's apology was much like Reeds. Too much like Reeds. Sue hadn't even tried to go to sleep that night.

_Damn-it I've got to stop thinking about Reed._ Sue told herself. _He's dead, long dead. The fact that Victor is as smart as he was and talks a little like him at times..._

Reed's face floated in front of Sue's mind. He too had loved to lecture. So much so that Sue had found the best way to stop him was to kiss him. Those kisses always caught him off guard. There would be a moment of puzzlement on his face, the spark of realization in his eyes and then he would return the kiss.

"Susan?"

Sue blinked and looked up. The console was in standby mode and no one was kissing her. Reed's face vanished.

"I'm sorry Victor." Sue said. "I'm more tired than I thought I was."

"You are not eating well." Victor said.

"It's hard to eat period." Sue said. She glanced at the chronometer read out. Luckily she had only been asleep for fifteen minutes. "I don't have a lot of teeth left, neither does Jan. The guards liked them as souvenirs."

"I'm sorry." Victor said.

"Didn't the Skull ever knock a few of your teeth out?" Sue asked.

"A few." Victor said. "But this explains your fatigue of late and the pain I see on Jan's and your faces while we eat. You are not eating enough. Open your mouth."

A little reluctantly Sue did so. Using a small penlight Doom peered into her.

"They need to be fixed." he pronounced.

"We don't have a dentist office around." Sue said. "And we have more important things to do."

"You are mistaken." Victor said. "I think we should stop for the day while I examine the medical unit, May has been anxious for me to do so at any rate."

"What about the Hyperdrive?" Sue asked as he turned to go.

"I am running a test now that does not need my attention. You should rest, I will talk with you again later."

__

Damn you don't dismiss me! Sue wanted to shout and she had actually opened her mouth and started to rise before getting hold of herself. It wasn't a dismissal as much as it was Victor moving onto another problem. Sue had seen Reed do the same thing many times. Or had she?

Frustrated and angry with herself Sue got out of the chair and headed toward the exit. Thoughts of Reed and the rest of the Fantastic Four had been coming to her more and more. The memories were unsettling, distracting and Sue told herself and told herself that she couldn't afford to be distracted. Needing a task to concentrate on Sue turned invisible and went to spy on Namorita.

The room was large enough for three beds and two chairs. Display screens were everywhere, both flat and holographic. Cabinets full of tools and medical instruments were set against one wall.

But it was the smell of the place that got to Sue. The air was cool, antiseptic, it was new air or at least it seemed to be new air. Sue could not explain why it scared her, but it did.

"I'm not sure about this." Sue said as she walked in. Behind her was Mary Jane, already in the room was Victor and May. Jan was flying about the room examining everything at once.

"You need to eat Susan." Victor said. "And beyond that is the fact that unless at least two of the teeth I saw are healed they will soon abscess."

"You've only had a half day to look at all this stuff." Sue protested. She sat down in the chair anyway. Sue knew that Victor was right about her teeth, they were becoming more and more sensitive and the pain was just one more distraction she didn't need.

"A cursory examination was all that was needed." Victor said. "I am not dissecting these machines as I am the hyperdrive engines, it is not necessary at this point. All I have to do is understand the basic operating principles and follow the directions."

"You mean this place teaches you how to practice medicine?" Mary Jane asked. She looked at the arcane machinery.

"You forget Mary Jane that the Kree military built this place." Victor said. "The military mind always prepares for the worst case scenario. In this case personnel who were not trained medically, at least not beyond a simple course of instruction, might someday be needed to treat combat casualties. Mouth injuries are common in combat."

"I get to do one too." May said anxiously. "You said she had two teeth that needed work."

"Be patient." Victor said. He went over to one of the cabinets and took out two pairs of glasses. Putting one on he handed the other to May. Then he pushed a button on the side of Sue's chair.

A soft whine filtered through Sue's body and for a moment her heart stopped. The whine was so familiar, but so forgotten. Sue was sure she had heard it before, but when and where was a mystery.

"Easy Sue." Mary Jane said taking hold of her hand. "You look white as a ghost."

"You want me to go first?" Jan asked landing in Sue's lap.

"No, I'll be fine." Sue said.

__

I guess this means I trust Victor now. Sue thought as she leaned back and opened her mouth. _You're never as vulnerable as when you are in a dentist chair or on a gynecologist table. Oh God Sue don't go there! Not there! God why am I so scared? I do trust him, I've spent too much time with him over the past few days, seen too little of the old Dr. Doom, but I'm terrified! Why? I was never scared of the dentist before._

"May, push the button on the left side of your glasses." Victor said. Then he spoke some words in Kree.

"Shock!" May shouted. "It's like I'm on the inside of her mouth!"

"What you are seeing is a holographic recreation of her mouth created by the medical scanners." Victor said. He spoke in Kree again. "What you are now seeing in the box to your left is the actual tooth. In the box to your right is an X-ray of that tooth."

"Cool!" May said. "In color too!"

"The views are controlled by voice commands." Victor said. "So pay attention to the words as I speak them."

"Right."

Sue took a tighter grip on Mary Jane's hand and fought to keep from bolting out of the chair. Her fear deepened when Victor took a stubby pen-like object and eased it into her mouth.

"You will not feel any pain Susan." He said pushing her tongue out of the way.

"I got a new display on the bottom." May said.

"That is a mode and power setting scale that is adjustable from the focus unit I am holding." Victor said.

"How many things are you seeing?" Mary Jane asked.

"Three views." May said. "It's incredible mom, they look so real."

"The detail is very important." Victor said. "Now May, look at the tooth. As you can see the decay has penetrated nearly to the root, and the center of the tooth itself is only protected by a thin shell. First we must remove the decayed portion."

Sue felt a humming in her head. She was sweating heavily and the fear was growing. A slight odor reached her nose; it reminded Sue of overcooked coffee grounds. But she felt only a vague hum and dryness in her mouth.

"It's going away." May said. "How? Burning?"

"If it were burning Sue would let us know." Victor said. "Do you see the green light? The medical computer is tracking that light. Wherever that beam rest invisible beams are focused from unit above us. Where those beams intersect matter is disintegrated. I am using the second control on the focus unit to determine the depth and letting the images of the tooth tell me where and how far to go."

Sue looked up and saw that a box had descended silently from the ceiling. On the box were half a dozen cylinders all pointing at her. Sue swallowed and only sheer terror kept her in the chair. The time it took to remove the bad part of the tooth seemed like time in her nightmares.

"It's all gone." May said at last. "So what do we do now, re-grow it?"

"This sort of bone can not be re-grown quickly." Victor replied. Again he spoke a word in Kree. "Do you see the outline over the tooth?"

"Yea."

"That is the original shape of the tooth as recreated by the genetic blue print within the tooth itself. Beside it is a chemical breakdown of the matter of the tooth. As I focus the beam now a two step process will take place. First a small amount of that matter will be created and then that will be teleported onto the tooth. This will be done in layers and each layer will be teleported so that it is slightly overlapping the other layer, this will form the bond that will hold the new tooth material to the old."

"That is so cool." May said.

"Beats the old drill and fill method." Mary Jane said. "What do you think Sue?"

Sue didn't move or speak. She barely managed to squeeze Mary Jane's hand a little tighter. By this time Sue's body was bathed in sweat and her mind felt like it was being pulled apart by fear. She lay still as death as Victor worked and talked. May asked questions and talked. Mary Jane commented and talked. At some point during all the talking Sue stopped hearing anything. She was in another chair, in another room. A far younger Sue had just been caught and rapped for the first time and now she sat, helpless while men and women poked and prodded her body. That Sue had been gagged and only managed to grunt out her anguish. That Sue screamed for help but the older Sue who sat in the chair in the Kree base suffered in silence.

Sue opened her eyes and looked around. Mary Jane was sitting in the medical room. Victor, May and Jan were gone.

"What happened?" Sue asked.

"You passed out just after the first tooth was done." Mary Jane said.

Sue moved her tongue around her mouth. For the first time in years there were no jagged edges, no sore spots. The gaps were still there, but the broken teeth had been fixed.

"I guess now I can eat again." Sue said sitting up. "I hope I didn't disappoint May."

"I think she liked it better that you were asleep." Mary Jane said. "You were so scared it scared her."

"I'm sorry." Sue said. Mary Jane helped her out of the chair. "I didn't realize it at first. When I was caught... I told you about it. This was the sort of room where it was done."

"No wonder you were scared." Mary Jane said.

"It's past." Sue said. "Maybe now I can eat and get some strength into me."

"It might help if you got some sleep too." Mary Jane said. "It's been over a week Sue, don't you trust them yet?"

"Well I think I just proved how much I trust Victor." Sue said.

"So let up already." Mary Jane said. "You can't keep shuffling around like a zombie, you could pass it off as malnutrition before, but not after this."

"You're right." Sue said, sounding as sane and reasonable as she could. "I have to get some rest."

__

If only I could get through a night. Sue thought. _Just getting onto the bed terrifies me. But Mary Jane is right, I have to try and get some sleep. Maybe tonight will be different._

This time Sue remembered the nightmare. She woke fighting the mob that had first caught her. She clawed her way out of their grip and came face to face with the corpses of the Fantastic Four. All of them were there, including herself. They had looked at Sue with condemnation and she had watched, unable to look away as their bodies crumbled with hideously slow decay. The corruption that claimed their bodies left their faces for last and those looks were the last to go. Sue had run from them, into the arms of Doom. He was wearing full armor and when she tore the mask from his face Reed looked out at her. But she had torn that mask as well to reveal the face of a Sentinel robot. Then she was in the graveyard again.

That had woken Sue up. Staggering out of the bed she had crawled into the bathroom to throw up. Then climbed into the shower. But this time the water did not keep her awake. Sue didn't have the strength to stay awake anymore. Sleep claimed her and the nightmare of the graveyard and the statues was waiting.

Mary Jane always kept her door open a crack and she slept very lightly. So she woke up instantly as Sue entered the room. Mary Jane slept with the lights dim, not out. To her Sue looked like a walking corpse. Her blonde/white hair hung on her head, her eyes were wide with shock, her mouth moved as if trying to speak, parts of her body kept vanishing, only to re-appear as she lost control of her power. Crying softly, naked and with her hair still wet from the shower Sue climbed onto the bed and huddled against Mary Jane. Sue didn't so much cry as she whimpered, and Mary Jane knew that the strength to cry out, to release with sound the agony that had finally brought her friend to this point simply wasn't there.

Mary Jane drew the sheets over Sue's body and hugged her tightly. She didn't say anything, Mary Jane had spent years raising children and she knew there was a time no words would help. As the night wore on and Sue silently suffered Mary Jane held on to her.

Neither Sue nor Mary Jane slept. Though while Sue was not asleep she was also not fully aware. Instead she was too aware. The damn that she had built over the past decade and beyond had finally broke and all she could do was let the emotions wash over her. They burned her soul with a flame of intensity that mocked real fire and put hellfire to shame. Insanity beckoned seductively, standing beyond the reach of time and space and offering the false promise of endless peace. But that small part of Sue Richards that knew where she was, that knew what was going on, stubbornly refused to let go. She clung to Mary Jane, physically and emotionally and bade Insanity to withdraw. But Insanity proved to be very patient. Sue could see it almost as a physical being, standing in the doorway.

It was not alone. Beside Insanity stood Death. And Death, Sue well knew, would bring her peace. But as Mary Jane anchored her against Insanity she anchored Sue against Death as well, for Sue would not leave her friend to a world that mercy had fled.

The area between Sue and the twin specters was not a quiet empty place. Around Sue danced and screamed all the men and women who had ever beaten or raped her. She saw through their eyes as they beat and raped her, and felt with her own body as the scars were raised again and again on her flesh. Standing between the dancers was the tall, silent and ominous Sentinels. The robots' faces: un-changing, un-caring mockeries of humanity gazed at Sue with basilisk-like eyes. Her hate could not reach them; her pain could not move them. They were the silent totems that the men and women gave her body to as offering, time and time again.

Time had no meaning for Sue's pain. But everything has to end at some point. Sue wasn't aware of when it happened, but gradually the phantoms faded, the screams died and suddenly Sue was aware that she was real again. She was in a bed, lying against a warm body and a blanket was thrown over them both.

"Mary Jane?" Sue asked and was not surprised at all that her voice was so weak.

"I'm right here Sue." Mary Jane replied, hugging her. "I told you I would be."

"Where am I?"

"My room."

"What time is it?"

"We've got about two hours before everyone wakes up."

"Oh." Sue sighed and simply collapsed back into her. "You were right. Without Jan I did cry myself to sleep. But I didn't hug pillows. I tore them to shreds."

"That's nothing to be ashamed about." Mary Jane said. "You've been holding too much in Sue, you had to let it out sooner or later."

"I guess." Sue said. 

"I told you my door was open."

"So I crawl into it naked in the middle of the night!" Sue's laugh turned into a choked cry. "It's a wonder I didn't scare you half to death."

"You just needed help." Mary Jane said. "You needed to let it all out."

"I didn't let it all out." Sue said. "It's still in me. It will always be in me." She drew in closer to Mary Jane. "Everytime the kids look at my face and flinch, they do you know, when I catch them off guard... God! This is so sick! We are in danger of our lives and sometimes all I can think of is how ugly I look!"

"You're not ugly." Mary Jane said.

"Don't lie to me Mary Jane." Sue said. She pulled away from Mary Jane and let the blanket fall. "I was beautiful once, now I'm an ugly old lady with scars." She fell back to the bed. "An old lady with scars who's barely holding onto her sanity."

Mary Jane sat up and draped the blanket around Sue's body.

"You're an old lady with scars who's been through so many kinds of hell I can't even imagine most of them. You're an old lady with scars who's saved my family from those hells. You're the woman who somehow managed to survive it all and help others survive it. But Sue." Mary Jane took Sue's chin and moved her face so that they looked at each other. "You don't have to do it alone anymore. Talk it out, don't keep it bottled inside of you." She put her fingers on the scar on Sue's face, holding Sue when the other woman tried to pull away. "And that isn't the problem is it?"

"No." Sue tried again to draw away but Mary Jane held onto her. "From the day I was captured and I realized everyone I ever loved was dead, except for Jan, from the day we reached the camp, from that point on I had to live for survival, and for Jan. I could only have that in my mind. I didn't let myself remember any of the times we had as the Fantastic Four. I couldn't let myself; the pain was too much. And from that day, someday, I can't even tell you when, I haven't."

"Until now." Mary Jane said. "With only you and Jan it was easy to keep them out. But now you have us."

"Nick reminds me of Ben, Rebecca reminds of Johny, May and Ben both remind me of Franklin, and now Victor, God Victor is starting to remind me of Reed! It's too much Mary Jane, I can't take it! It's like their ghosts are dragging me down to hell because..."

"Because you survived." Mary Jane finished when Sue's own shocked voice trailed away. "I know. I felt the same way for years after Peter died. It's much worse for you, you have powers. I never did. It's guilt Sue, and you have to let it go."

"It's my edge!" Sue protested.

"It's crippling you!" Mary Jane insisted. "Let it go."

"If I let it out what will I have left?" Sue pleaded. She started to pull away again. "I don't think there's anything left."

"Sue." Mary Jane stopped her and pulled her back. "If there wasn't anything left you wouldn't have taken care of Jan, you wouldn't have helped us all. That wasn't guilt. That was Sue Storm Richards. You're still in there Sue."

"I wish I could believe that." Sue said.

Mary Jane arranged the pillows so that she was sitting up against the headboard.

"Come here." She said giving a slight tug on Sue's arm. Sue let herself fall into her and Mary Jane wrapped an arm around her.

"We've got time before everyone wakes up." Mary Jane said. "Take that time Sue. Lay back, take a deep breath and just take that time."

Sue took a breath and tried to relax.

"Take a deeper one than that." Mary Jane chided.

"This won't help." Sue protested.

"It won't hurt." Mary Jane said. "Now try again."

Sue took a deeper breath and tried again.

Her room was a mess.

Before Sue's private demons had forced her to Mary Jane's room they had forced her to do battle in her own room. The bed was in pieces; the walls and floor had deep dents and tears in them. Sue stood in the doorway, stunned that she had caused so much damage.

_I'd forgotten how dangerous a crazy person is with my sort of power._ Sue thought as she picked her way across the room. She reached the dresser and changed into the standard blue jumpsuit that was waiting for her. Then she used her force fields to shove the wreckage into a corner. Some time that day she would find a chance to replace the bed. For now it was enough that she repaired the walls. _It's a wonder I didn't kill us all. Poor Mary Jane, I must have scared the hell out of her. I'm glad it's over._

Breakfast was a strange experience for Sue that morning. It had taken time to push the bent metal tears in her wall back into place and more time to compact the wreckage with her force field and move it invisibly out of the building and far into the back of the cavern. Only Mary Jane and Jarvis were still there when she walked into the dining room.

"Good morning Mrs. Richards." Jarvis said.

"Good morning Jarvis." Sue said. She sat down. "Where is everyone?"

"Victor, Jan and May are in the medical unit." Mary Jane said. "They are working on her teeth. Namorita and Mystique are in the control room. With Ben." she added at the look on Sue's face. "Victor asked Ben to do some research for him."

"Ok." Sue said. "I know." She said at the look on Mary Jane's face. "I'm working on trusting her."

"Here you are Mrs. Richards." Jarvis said putting a large plate of food down in front of her. Sue looked at it in surprise. Scrambled eggs, toast, bacon, an English muffin and a large glass of milk. Usually for breakfast Sue had been having the eggs and milk alone.

"Well you do have a good set of teeth now." Mary Jane said smiling at the look on Sue's face.

Sue cautiously took a bite out of the toast. For the first time in a very long time there was no pain.

"Thank you Jarvis." She said.

"You're welcome Mrs. Richards." Jarvis said. His English reserve did not crack as he retreated to the kitchen.

"I think the thought that you've been passing out because of lack of food is sort of insulting to him." Mary Jane said.

"No one can know the truth Mary Jane." Sue said. "Not yet. Not until we're safe."

"I won't tell anyone." Mary Jane said. "But..."

"Jan chomp!" Jan shouted flying into the room.

Sue and Mary Jane looked up surprised as a nude Jan landed on a chair and enlarged to full size. There was a look of childish exultation on her face as she smiled.

"No more pain when I eat!" Jan cried. "Jarvis! Food!"

"Here you are Miss." Jarvis said walking into the room with a tray. On it was a banana split. With a cry of delight Jan started to eat. How he knew to have that ready Sue had no idea.

"I knew I'd find her here." May said. She walked in carrying Jan's clothing. "Jan you gotta remember clothes, what if Ben saw you now?"

"He's wouldn't get any of my ice cream!" Jan said smiling.

"Where is Victor?" Sue asked.

"He's setting up a special re-grow cast for Jan." May said. "How you feeling?"

"I'm fine." Sue said. "Watch."

Sue started to eat again and there was a self satisfied look on May's face as she did so.

"What is Victor working on?" Mary Jane asked.

"There's a gadget that can hook onto Jan's leg and re-grow her foot." May said.

"What?" Mary Jane looked at Sue.

"It never occurred to me to even look." Sue admitted.

"Jan's gonna run again!" Jan cried causing ice cream to run down her face. May went over to her and cleaned her off.

"I'm gonna go read some more manuals." May declared after Jan's chin was clean. She tossed Jan's clothes on the chair next to her before she ran off.

"For you as well Mrs. Richards." Jarvis said putting a banana split next to her other food.

For the first time in a long time Sue ate a pleasant breakfast.

Ben was reading off of the one of the monitor screens when Sue walked into the control room. In front of him was a long list of names, places and dates.

"Hi." Sue said.

"Hi." Ben answered.

"Where did Mystique and Namorita go?" Sue asked.

"Mystique saw something on the screen that made her cry and Namorita took her to their room." Ben said. "They spend a lot of time together in there."

Sue looked around and saw what had upset Mystique. On one of the monitors was an anti-mutant program for children. A version of Mystique, younger and distorted by the anime style was battling a group of black suited men who looked like the Red Skull's guards. Sue turned the monitor off.

"That's their business. What are you doing?"

"Mr. Doom asked me to track him down some lawyers." Ben said.

"Lawyers?" Sue asked.

"Yea." Ben handed her the list. In Victor's ultra-neat handwriting was a series of names, most of which Sue remembered. Judges, lawyers, lawmakers, the cream of the legal crop that had fought the Grey's and then the government's anti-mutant campaign.

"Have any luck?" Sue asked, handing the list back to him.

"Not until I decided to start checking paper obits." Ben said. "Then I found a lot of them. Mostly heart attacks, some muggings that turned bad... I think a lot of it is phony."

"Probably." Sue said. "Jan and I were listed as dead." Sue pulled over a chair and sat down. "There is a trick to doing this sort of search. Want me to show you?"

"Sure." Ben said moving over.

"What's the first name on your list that died because of a heart attack?" Sue asked.

"Barbara Gordon." Ben read. "She was a congresswoman from Dakota."

"Ok." Sue called up the obituary. "Write this down. Height 5 feet 6 inches, red hair, green eyes, age unknown, died in Virginia."

"Got it." Ben said.

"Now we call up the labor camp for Virginia. Start with the next day and scroll through the new arrivals."

Ten minutes later Sue stopped the list and pointed to one of the names.

"Betty Kane." Sue said. "Mutant sympathizer. Height 5'6", red hair, green eyes. That's her."

"So instead of killing her they put her in a labor camp? Why?"

"There could be a lot of reasons." Sue said. "She could have a rare blood type, they might think she knew something, also if she turned out to have friends in important places they could produce her alive."

"But someone had to give the order to kill her." Ben said.

"Right, and that someone might have a boss who didn't want her killed. So instead of killing her, which is rather final, they stuff her into a camp and if she turns out to have important friends, or friends who will someday be important, they can haul her out, claim it was all a mistake and that's that."

"Is that why they didn't kill you and Jan?"

"No." Sue said. "They just forgot about us I think."

"Wow, that's lucky."

_Yea, it was like winning the lottery._ Sue held her tongue but Ben's directness was disconcerting at times.

"Did you know my father?" Ben asked suddenly.

"Yes I did." Sue said.

"He ever fight Galactus?"

"No." Sue said with a laugh. "Your father left the cosmic menaces to us and the Avengers."

"Oh."

"Don't be disappointed Ben." Sue said. "I would have traded foes with him in a second."

"Did you see him a lot?"

"Yes." Sue leaned back in her chair. "The Baxter Building had a good view of the city and I used to see him swinging around all the time."

"Cool." Ben said. He looked at her uncertainly for a moment. "Can you help me with the rest of this list?"

"Alright." Sue said.

For the rest of the morning and into the afternoon Sue and Ben moved through database after database. Though the Sentinels and the Greys were officially anti-technology their computer records were incredibly complete. While they searched Sue answered question after question about Spiderman. On one level she didn't mind, Ben deserved to know just what sort of hero his father was. But on another it was like walking through your house after it had been burned down. Sue had to remember a time when she liked the world, and the world had seemed to like her back.

The list of names didn't really help much. Most of the people on the list were truly dead, but many were in labor camps and many more were listed as "Special Cases". Sue had no idea what that meant but she doubted those people were having a good time. Sue was relieved when Mary Jane called them both for dinner. More news was waiting for here there. A full sized Jan was sporting a full leg and foot cast and Victor told them that with-in two weeks Jan's missing foot would be re-grown. It was a miracle that made Sue happier than she had been in over a decade. But Victor next told them all that by the end of the next day he be able to tell how long it would take the fix the hyperdrives. Sue didn't miss the look that Namorita gave her.

Sue was looking at a read out when Mary Jane came into the control room.

"What's this?" Mary Jane asked.

"Just helping Ben out." Sue said. He wants to know what "Special cases" means."

"He does or you do?" Mary Jane asked.

"A little of both I guess." Sue said. "I'm not changing my mind Mary Jane. I still think the safest place for us is off of this planet."

"We haven't heard Victor's plan yet." Mary Jane pointed out.

"I know." Sue said. She leaned back in her chair. "God I'm tired."

"I thought you would be." Mary Jane said. "Come on, let's get to bed."

"What?" Sue looked up at her. "Mary Jane last night..."

"Sue." Mary Jane interrupted. "I saw your room."

"Oh. Well I put a new bed in after lunch."

Mary Jane sighed.

"Look Sue you have three choices right now. You can come with me and sleep in my bed, and maybe make it through the night, I can come with you and sleep with you in your bed, and maybe you can make it through the night, or you can go to your room and try to sleep alone, in which case you'll just be climbing into my bed later on after another round of nightmares." Mary Jane handed Sue a nightgown. "I think it'd be better if you took choice number one, at least for the next few nights."

"I..." Sue started to speak and then stopped.

"Please? I don't want Ben to see you walking around naked again."

"He saw me?" Sue gasped the question out and realized she was blushing.

"He isn't sure." Mary Jane said. "You kept fading in and out, but next time..." she extended the nightgown again. "Please?"

Sue reached over and shut off the monitor. Then she stood up and took the nightgown.

"Well, I guess... you right Mary Jane. But you've got three kids to take care off..."

"And you're acting like the forth." Mary Jane said. "And you know it." She took hold of Sue's arm and gave a little tug. "Now come on."

Sue hadn't slept alone since Jan had started sleeping with May. Before that her separations from Reed had always been short. It was different sleeping with someone. Sue hadn't realized how much of a difference that was until she woke up from the nightmare and reached for Mary Jane. Even in her panic Sue reached over gently, years of sleeping with Jan had taught her to do that. So instead of clutching tightly at Mary Jane's hand Sue just took hold of it. Not seeming to stir Mary Jane tightened her grip and Sue relaxed.

It had been a new nightmare this time. Sue didn't remember the details, and she really didn't want to remember them. She was tired of nightmares.

Shifting her position Sue put her arm over Mary Jane and laid her head against the other woman's chest. The strong steady sound of Mary Jane's heart and the sounds of her lungs taking in and letting out air filled Sue's ears.

_God what am I doing here? _Sue thought. _I'm over forty and I'm clinging to Mary Jane like May would. _Even as she scolded herself Sue did not move. She could no sooner of let go of a life raft at sea as she could have moved her head from Mary Jane's chest. _Is there enough left in me to save them? Do they even need me today? I wasn't as tight today, wasn't as focused, I lost track of Mystique and Namorita, nothing happened. Have I been fooling myself that I'm the only thing standing between them and the Sentinels? God tomorrow I have to decide if they stay or if Namorita and I have it out and I lock her up. Another fight. I don't want another fight, I've done so much fighting... and Victor's grand plan? What is he up too? What is he thinking? God Reed I need you! Just for a few minutes... just to talk this all out. And what the hell is "Special cases"? What did the Greys do to those people? Is it the same thing they did to me and Jan? Will Jan be able to walk again...?_

Sue's thoughts only abated when sleep once again claimed her. Mary Jane sighed gratefully as sleep robbed Sue's grip of its power. Then she carefully shifted her position to get more comfortable. When she was certain Sue was not going to wake up again that night Mary Jane allowed herself drift off to sleep.

There was a tense atmosphere in the room. There had been one hanging around all of them all day and it centered around and originated from Sue and Namorita. Victor worked in the ships, alone. Sue split the day with Ben providing an invisible force field "net" as he practiced web slinging from the ceiling of the base and then with him doing more research. They were becoming more and more used to the Greys/Sentinels database, and the names were becoming easier to track down. Many of them were actually dead, a few were listed as "Pacified", a phrase that chilled Sue, but many more were listed as "Special Cases", a designation that puzzled Sue. The people were not mutants, nor did they have any history of mutation in their family tree nor any trace of the X gene in their blood. Nothing singled them out but the fact that their opposition to the current state of affairs was intransigent. Sue would have guess that they would be in labor camps like the one she and Jan had been in. But they weren't. Those listed as Special Cases were simply sent to a facility in Nevada marked "Study Area A" and no more was mentioned of them. Sue and Ben had used the Kree spy satellite to take a look at the place. Study Area A was simply another name for the University of Nevada. But now the campus was surrounded by a stone wall and armed guards. But there was no sign of any of the harsh treatment Sue expected.

It was a puzzle, but that puzzle was put aside when they gathered that afternoon in the dining room. It was late afternoon. Jarvis had put out some food for them all, and extra food for Sue. He seemed determined to put a few extra pounds on her now that she could eat normally. Sue enjoyed the peanut butter and jelly sandwich, but kept eye on Namorita. Sitting across from her Namorita did not eat.

When Victor finally walked in Sue watched him closely. There was no sign that he was enjoying the tension, something Sue had suspected might be the case. He merely walked into the room and placed a portable holographic generator onto the table.

"I have concluded my study of the Kree hyperdrives and their repair." Victor said. Above the generator appeared a set of badly cracked and shattered crystals. "These are the crystals in Hero's Ark, the crystals in the other ship are in the same condition. Suffice to say they are not functional."

"Isn't there any spares on the base?" Ben asked. "If they got the dry-docks they should have spare parts for everything."

"I believe they did at one point." Victor said. "And I have surmised the reason that none exist in the containers I have found. Susan, when the Fantastic Four found this place you reported that you found all the Kree and Skrull warriors dead?"

"With their hands wrapped around each others throats." Sue said.

"But you found no Skrull ship or signs of damage to the entrance?"

"No." Sue thought for a moment. "None at all, funny we didn't think of that at the time, but Reed was so exited about a chance to study the Kree technology..."

"His curiosity sometimes caused him to overlook the obvious." Victor said when she trailed off. Sue heard no malice or scorn in his voice. "The Skrull's ability to change their body shape have aided them much in their battles against the Kree. The Kree, in turn, have become experts at detecting a Skrull no matter what shape they take."

"They were the crystals?" Ben asked.

"No, they were the containers that held the crystals." Victor said. "The one cargo above all that the Kree technicians would handle the most carefully. The infiltrators held themselves in that shape while the base was being supplied and then emerged to take over. I believe they failed because of the two ships."

"There were more Kree than they thought." Sue said. "Now that I think about it the body count did seem to be even."

"In the process of that battle all of the spare crystals were destroyed." Victor said.

"You mean the hyperdrives can't be fixed?" Namorita asked.

"No. The Kree built their ships with extreme care, and this particular model specifically so. Immersed into the proper solution and with the proper energy pulse directed at them the crystals will grow once more. Then it will simply be a matter of re-aligning their matrixes."

"How long will this take?" Sue asked. She was ready for a fight and so was Namorita.

"Aproximately 3 months." Victor said.

"Three months!" Namorita exclaimed jumping up.

"Hold it!" Mary Jane shouted as Sue leapt out of her seat. By the moral authority of a mother she held the two women apart. "Sue, Namorita, sit down and we'll talk about this."

Slowly they sat down.

"You still don't trust me?" Namorita asked.

"No." Sue said. "I trust you. I don't trust Namor."

"I won't tell him." Namorita said.

"He'll accept that." Sue replied with a voice so heavy with sarcasm it could have broken the table."He doesn't own me Sue."

"He's monarch of Atlantis, you are one his subjects, by definition he owns you."

"She could lie." Jan suggested.

"What sort of lie would satisfy him?" Sue asked. "He knows you went into space."

"No he doesn't." Namorita said. "He knows someone went into space.

"She's right." Victor said. "I have read the reports that the Greys troops filed. They were unable to find out who made it to the space ship."

"So where has she been all this time?" Sue demanded. "Why no contact?"

"I was hurt and in the jungle." Namorita suggested. "With Mystique taking care of me we made it across the continent to the water."

"And the ones who attacked the Red Skull?" Sue demanded. "The Greys know I was there, so will Namor."

"I'll tell him you busted out Doom and in the confusion Mystique and I made a run for it." Namorita said. "I'll say that I only saw you for a few minutes and aside from breaking our chains and Mystique's collar you didn't say anything to us."

"It seems a plausible plan Susan." Victor said. "Far better than keeping her here, especially since neither Nick nor I have decided whether or not to stay on this planet or go with you."

Sue sat back in her chair.

_It could work, and I can't keep her here. Well I could, but I'm the only one who seems in favor of that. God, I'm arguing with Dr. Doom to let someone go! If that doesn't tell me how much Victor has changed, hell how much **I've** changed nothing does. But the risk... even Victor doesn't realized what would happen if we got caught. _Sue let her eyes roam around the table. The looks she got told Sue that she truly stood alone on this issue. _I can't lock all of them up. Letting her go is crazy, or is it? This is what comes from sleeping with Mary Jane, I've lost the edge, but I can't keep hating everyone forever! The hell with it! It's time I shared the load._

"Ok." Sue said. "This isn't really my decision to make alone. Two weeks ago it was, but a lot has changed since then."

"You've gotten us this far." Rebecca said.

"I wasn't a queen Rebecca. I made the choices and Mary Jane agreed because we both knew there weren't any other alternatives. I got us here, that I did on my own, but after that, leaving the planet; rescuing Victor, that was all of us. This has to be all of us again."

_I don't want the responsibility. _Sue left that thought unsaid.

"Direct democracy?" Victor asked? "We vote on Namorita and Mystique staying or leaving?"

"That's right." Sue said.

"So all of you get to decide if I go free or not?" Namorita asked.

"All of us are the ones who got you that freedom in the first place." Rebecca said. "But if it's a vote then I say yes; let her go. I trust them."

"Me too." May said.

"Vic and me have spent too long with them not to trust them." Nick said.

"Jarvis?" Sue asked.

"I trust her." Jarvis said from the doorway. "I trust them both."

"Ja..." Sue started to ask but Jan had fallen asleep in her chair.

"She's been sleepy a lot lately." May said. "I think it's the cast. But I think she'd say yes."

"I'd trust them." Ben said.

"Well Mary Jane?" Sue asked turning to her.

"I do to." Mary Jane said.

_Great, so now I have to trust her and god help Namorita if she betrays that trust._

"Doesn't this thing ever run out of gas?" Rebecca asked as Sue started the Quinjet's engines.

"One of the last innovations from Stark Industries was a hydrogen fuel system that re-charged itself." Sue said. "Tony and Reed developed a system that could create hydrogen gas from the atmosphere. It takes time, but the Quinjet has had enough time."

Rebecca whistled in amazement.

"Yea, it was the perfect solution to the energy problems. They were still going through the prototype process when they were murdered."

"She all set to go?" Mary Jane called climbing into the Quinjet.

"All set." Sue said. "Are they making their good-byes?"

"Yep."

"Good, I'll be back in about two days." I left the codes I'll use in an envelope on your bed."

"I really want to come." Rebecca said.

"If we run into problems I'll be better off alone." Sue said.

"I can handle myself now." Rebecca protested. "No guy's gonna..."

"Don't say that." Sue said sharply. "Heroines say that just before they loose."

"I'm better." Rebecca said stubbornly.

"I was too." Sue said. "It didn't matter, it doesn't matter, you can always loose."

"But..."

"Patience Rebecca." Mary Jane said. "Remember, Nick told us it took your father years to get really good, you've only been training a while. Give yourself time."

Sullenly Rebecca got up and left the Quinjet.

"It might be a good idea for you to help her with her training when you get back." Mary Jane said.

"There's nothing like getting rap... beat to keep you humble." Sue said. "If I come back I'll help."

They heard a noise and looked back to see Namorita and Mystique getting into the Quinjet.

"If I don't come back Mary Jane I think you can trust Victor."

"I do trust him." Mary Jane said. "I've been watching him when he's with Ben and May. But you will be back Sue."

Sue turned away and hit a few more switches. The whine of the engines became louder. Mary Jane put her hand on Sue's shoulder, gave one squeeze and then withdrew.

There was no convenient storm this time. Sue left the cavern in the arctic morning and kept the Quinjet invisible. She moved so slowly and so close to the ground that penguins sniffed the air as they went by. Keeping to the valleys and in the shadows of mountains Sue made her way across the frozen continent, past the Cape of Good Hope and into Africa. She landed in a clearing a half mile from the coast.

"We're set." Sue said as the night fell. She stood at the entrance to the Quinjet and pointed. "The Atlantic is that way."

After weeks of the processed air of the Kree base the heady humid air at the jungle felt oppressive. Sue wanted nothing more to get away before someone spotted her.

"Thanks." Namorita said. "For getting us out of the Red Skull's palace and for trusting us."

"Namorita." Sue said as Mystique and Namorita turned to go. "I do trust you both. But I'm warning you, if you betray that trust, if you or Mystique ever show up at the base, if you put Mary Jane, Rebecca, Ben, May, Jan, Victor, Nick, Jarvis in danger by going back there, then I will kill you and who ever you bring with you. They are all I have left and I will shatter Atlantis to a million pieces to keep them safe. Understand that."

"We do." Namorita said. "You don't have to worry about us."

_Like hell I don't. _Sue thought as she watched them vanish into the jungle. She closed the hatch and watched on the scanner as the two women got to the ocean. _I just don't have any choice._

...to be continued.


	5. Chapter 5

End of Hope

Chapter 5

The control room felt alien. Even after spending days and days in the room, sitting in a chair that, while comfortable, also had an alien feel to it, Mary Jane was always aware of the otherworld feel to the place. Little things, the lights being a slightly different shade, a table or console being slightly the wrong height, with the controls being placed oddly, the very smell of the room; all of it was enough to tell Mary Jane Parker that she was in a room designed by beings who were not human. But the control room was where she had spent most of the past week and a half and seldom had she been alone. Sue had left intending to put Namorita and Mystique down in Africa, close enough to the coast for the two of them to reach the Atlantic ocean. It should have taken her at most two days.

Mary Jane stood up and went over to the window. The control room looked over the vast cavern that had been a Kree surveillance base. Two ships stood in dry-dock cradles. Sue wanted to use one of those ships to take them to the stars and away from the stygian arena Earth had become. But to do that the hyperdrives had to be fixed, and that was a slow process. In the meantime Namorita had wanted to return to Atlantis. Sue had argued that they could not trust her, that if one word of the base reached the ears of the Sentinel robots or the fanatical Greys the base would be attacked.

_But we all voted against her. _ Mary Jane thought. _Is she paying the price for that? Did Namorita did betray her? Did the Greys or Baron Zemo's men get her?_

A pale ghostly image of Mary Jane was reflected back to her from the glass of the control room. It showed a medium sized woman with a slim build dressed in a pair of red slacks with a slightly less red blouse. Lines of age and bits of white just starting to push her appearance away from youth and into middle age. Worry took away from her looks as well, and Mary Jane had a lot to worry about. Bellow her, to one side of one of the ships, was a practice ground. On it Nick Fury, one time director of SHIELD ran Rebecca Rogers and Ben Parker, Mary Jane's son, through combat training. Both of them were wearing costumes. Ben's was a full cover suit, a suit so much like his father's old Spiderman costume it made Mary Jane shudder. It was a pair of blue tights, with red boots and red sleeves, with black lines to represent spiderwebs and a spider on the chest. There were differences; Ben's suit had openings in his wrist and the top of his feet so that he could cast webs, and the suit itself had a more dramatic flair than his fathers. The spider was larger and more detailed, he also sported a spider on the top of his head. The wide white eyes, polarized lenses in his fathers suit, were now sophisticated imaging units, capable of zooming in and out, seeing in the dark and even taking still pictures. That had been courtesy of Victor, and Mary Jane found it hard to reconcile that the man she now knew as Victor was once Doctor Doom. Tall, well built and handsome he was not the boasting megalomaniac that Peter had described. He was still forceful, still sure of himself, but over a decade as a prisoner had seemed to have cured Victor of his self imposed delusions of omnipotence.

Rebecca in a way worried Mary Jane more than Ben did. She too wore a costume, but it was a new one. Rebecca had fused her parents into a single person. She wore boots like her father, the red fireman boots, short blue pants, they had been too short in Mary Jane's opinion so May had added a red and white striped short skirt. Rebecca's large chest was contained by a blue halter top with long sleeves. On her chest were the words "American Witch" in white, one word on top of another, the letter "W" under the leter "M". The halter left her midriff bare and was edged with multiple American flags, starting with the original spirit of 1776 and ending with the modern 50 star model. One sleeve was red and the other blue. Her mask covered the top half of her face as her fathers did, but combined it with the red head dress of her mothers costume. Her curly brown hair flowed from the back. Her eyes were covered by the same type of lenses that Ben's costume used. Rebecca carried her fathers shield and was just beginning to learn how to use it.

_And if Sue doesn't come back soon she'll go after her. _Mary Jane thought. _She's grown up more in the past two weeks than I thought possible. Rebecca is determined to fix the world, even if Sue comes back will she go into space with us? I can make Ben come, but not her._

Mary Jane had raised Rebecca since she was a child, since her parents had been murdered by Sentinel robots. She had tried to give her the kind of upbringing that Captain America and the Scarlet Witch would have, but now seeing the determination in the young woman Mary Jane wondered if that had been a mistake. Mary Jane had seen for herself how easily costumed heroines could die.

"Mom you here?" May called.

Mary Jane turned to see May Parker bound into the room, a small nude Janet Van Dyne flittering around her shoulder.

"Where are your clothes Jan?" Mary Jane asked.

"I got em." May said holding up a pair of gold pants with a grey top.

"I meant her small ones." Mary Jane said.

"I hate changing so much." Janet said flying over to the console. She landed and looked at the screen. "Any sign of Sue yet?"

"Not yet." Mary Jane said walking over to her. Janet Van Dyne, the Wasp, with the body of a fairy and the mind of a child after some man had driven rusty nails into her skull. Jan's short black hair stirred as she flapped her four dragonfly-like wings. The trouble was that Jan wasn't a fairy or a child, she was a grown woman, and her habitual nudity, unconscious on her part, drove Ben crazy. Already dealing with being a teenager the sight of a naked woman made it even harder for him. For a while Jan had gotten it under control, especially after her foot had grown back. But the more time Sue spent away the more Jan seemed to regress.

"Can we check the reports again?" May asked.

"Ok honey." Mary Jane said. She sat down at the console and keyed in a sequence. The Kree spy base had a link into almost every communications system left on Earth, though that number was dwindling as the planet's tech base declined. The Sentinel robots believed technology bred mutation, so most technology was outlawed.

Jan sat and hummed while the computer scanned through the logs of military frequencies. It was a mindless, tuneless hum that chilled Mary Jane. She had spent years in Las Vegas, selling her body to protect her children, Rebecca and Jarvis. Sue and Jan had been in a Greys hell camp. Powerless they had been raped, beaten and tortured for more than ten years. The results had been a woman who bore more scars on her body than Mary Jane could count, and one on her face that was hideous to look at. And Jan, who had suffered brain damage that left her with the mind of a child. It was the fear that the same thing could happen to Ben, May and Rebecca that had driven Sue to try to get them off the planet, and driven her nearly into a nervous breakdown.

The computer sounded a chime and the words "No data found" appeared on the screen.

"Where is she!" Jan shouted and kicked one of the dials. "She promised she'd be back by now! Tell me where she is!"

She kept kicking the dial until Mary Jane reached over and picked her up. Mary Jane had never gotten used to picking up Jan when she was shrunk. It seemed wrong somehow, that this doll-sized creature was a woman. Mary Jane wasn't sure how tightly or loosely to hold her and the fact that Jan was naked and Mary Jane's fingers slipped over places she didn't usually touch on another woman didn't help.

"She will return." Victor said as Mary Jane awkwardly passed a squirming Jan to her daughter.

"How do you know?" Jan demanded growing to full size.

"You have found no trace of her in your searches." Victor said, not at all troubled that he was facing a nude woman. "Had Susan been captured the news would have instantly been relayed either to Baron Zemo or to the Sentinels. Such an event would be too important to those who captured her, the rewards they would reap would be enormous and they would not risk loosing those rewards."

"Oh." Jan said.

"Jan." May said, handing her the clothes. Jan got into them and Victor turned to Mary Jane.

"I would like to use the main console."

"Sure." Mary Jane said, standing up.

"Thank you." Victor said. He sat down and spoke in the Kree language. A map of the United States appeared and beside it a series of multicolored graphs.

"Whatch'a doing?" May asked.

"Plotting population rates and matching them against current crop yields and projections." Victor said. "Then I am comparing those results to the amount of food reaching the major cities and deducing the price chain."

"Price chain?" May asked.

"The price that a person pays at the store as compared to the price the farmer is paid for the food." Victor said. "Once operating cost for each stage is computed I can tell how much profit is being made."

"Why do you want to do that?" May asked. "We're not farmers."

"Because over the last few years the price of the food being sold in the cities and the amount of food reaching those cities is not matching what is produced at the farms nor the profit the farmers are making. Someone is apparently trying to starve the cities and make a profit while doing so."

"Well that's mean." May said.

"People aren't always nice honey." Mary Jane said.

"There is more than that involved." Victor said. He pointed to a graph. "Observe, this has been steadily declining over the past five years." He pointed to another graph. "As has this."

"What are those?" Mary Jane asked.

"One represents population, the other represents life expectancy. I would expect a drop in population and a lowering of the average life span, but these drops are too great, too sudden."

"Someone is trying to kill the cities?" Jan asked.

"Why?" May asked.

"Because a rural, non-industrialized, unsophisticated population is a very easy population to control." Victor said. "In any city with a sizeable population you invariably have three classes of people. One rules. Rules in comfort. That class is the leading progenitor of intellectuals. People who have the leisure to think beyond their daily lives. The next class are those who work, who are too busy to consider the grander puzzles of creation even if they have the potential to do so. Then you have a third class, or if you will a third and fourth class. The third class is the poor, those who are un-willing or un-able to find permanent employment. From those are bred the fourth class, those who are thieves and smugglers."

"What about entertainers?" Mary Jane asked.

"Or artist?" May piped up.

"They drift between the first and second class." Victor said. "And are the easiest to control. Such people live for the approval of others, usually those in power."

Mary Jane bristled a bit, remembering her own days as both model and actress. Still, Victor had a point.

"So someone is killing the cities." Mary Jane said. "Why?"

"Because the first class of the cities is where the revolution will come from." Victor said. "Despite what you and Susan think the idea that the Sentinels and the Greys are wrong did not die, it has rather shifted underground and within a generation, two at the most, a revolution will occur. It will start in the cities, where the intellectuals do very little but sit and talk, but invariably there will be one who decides that talking is not enough. In the population of city he will not be noticed."

"But in a small town..." Mary Jane trailed off. "But without the cities..."

"Only the large ones are being targeted." Victor said. "Eventually small city-states will develop with populations easily monitored and controlled. You lived in one yourself."

"So where is the food going?" May said.

"Atlantis." Victor said. "And from there it is being smuggled into Europe. Europe can not feed itself, not after fallout from the middle eastern nuclear war. Their soil is contaminated and the Sentinels anti-mutant policies will not allow them to farm it. Nor do they have the technology to cleanse the soil."

"It's a horrible thing to do." May said.

"Worse when it is not done well." Victor agreed. He adjusted the controls and the screen showed a different set of graphs.

"Las Vegas, New York, Boston, Los Angels." Mary Jane said reading the names under each graph.

"Behold the difference between the ideological mind and the criminal mind." Victor said. "Boston and Los Angeles are firmly in the hand of two prominent Greys. Pictures of people appeared next the graphs. Mary Jane recognized the Taskmaster, and a flame of hatred burned within her for him. He had been the once who had forced her to sell her body and secretly hypnotized Rebecca. Beside the New York graph was the Kingpin. The other two, a man and a woman, Mary Jane didn't know.

"This is Carlota Smythe." Victor said pointing to the woman who's picture rested beside the Los Angeles graph. She was younger than Mary Jane, but her face and her expression were iron. Cold grey eyes matched a face that, while attractive, was set in stone. "Perhaps the most fanatical of all the Greys she has climbed to the position of leadership over the bodies of her compatriots. The gang wars that are rapidly reducing her city to rubble were actually instigated by her agents. She merely waits for the proper time to have all of the gangs killed and emerge as a great heroine."

"This" Victor said pointing to the picture that floated next to the Boston graph "is Henry Adams, though he is no relation to the historical Adams family as he claims. He too is a fanatic, and since he did not have convenient street gangs he has resorted to extensive use of Raiders."

"That doesn't make sense." May said. "If you kill the cities, what will they be in charge of?"

"Smaller cities." Victor said. "In the past five years, with food becoming ever more scarce and expensive, farming has returned to the cities. Whole sections of Boston, New York and Los Angeles have had houses knocked down and the land used for farming. The process will continue. Eventually what were large metropolitan cities will become nothing more than walled city states surrounded by farms. What ever those in charge will call themselves they will be kings."

"I don't remember any houses knocked down in Las Vegas." Mary Jane said.

"You can not farm in the desert." Victor said. "And the Taskmaster has sewn together a web of political connections that leave his city alone. It helps that the city is still an entertainment and gambling icon. In New York the Kingpin is going along with the plan, but on a more gradual basis, and while he does that he builds a secret army to try and wrest control from the Greys."

"How do you know that?" May asked.

"Because the amount of food being smuggled into New York is not equal to the amount reaching Atlantis and Europe, and there are Greys intelligence reports of secret training camps. That is the difference, the Kingpin does not want New York reduced to a mere walled city, he sees the city as a reflection of his own ego and that ego will not tolerate it. He seeks to create a kingdom that will reach as far as it can. Such as he will never be satisfied with a mere city."

Mary Jane's heart stopped for a moment, but at the same time an idea occurred to her Rebecca's shield clanged off of the window causing them all to look up. A moment later Ben swung by and gestured an apology.

"That reminds me" Mary Jane said "it's almost time for the game. Jan, you and May go get ready ok?"

"Right." Jan said.

"I'll be down in a few minutes." Mary Jane said. After they were gone she turned to Victor.

"Victor, the Kingpin's secret army. Where is it training?"

"Africa." Victor said. "I believe he had made a secret deal with the Red Skull and now seeks to make one with Zemo."

"Africa is where Sue went."

"I know. But I believe, for the reasons I have given, that she is alive and un-captured."

"Do you believe or do you hope to believe?" Mary Jane asked.

"It is the most comforting theory I have at the moment." Victor said. He didn't respond when Mary Jane bent over and kissed his cheek.

"Thank you for not telling them. Jan is close to cracking and May's having nightmares."

"She will return." Victor said as he started to work on the computer.

Mary Jane sensed a slight edge in his voice, but whether it was hope, worry or certainty she could not say.

"Mom?"

Mary Jane was awake instantly at that single word. In the dim light of her room she spotted May at her bedside.

"What is it honey?" Mary Jane said sitting up. "Are you having nightmares again?"

"No, but I can't find Jan."

"Is she in Sue's room?" Mary Jane asked getting up and pulling a robe over her nightgown.

"No, and Sue's room is still all smashed."

"Come on May." Mary Jane took her daughters hand. "I think I know where she might be."

Mary Jane and May stepped out of her door just as Rebecca came out of the door to Nick's room. For a moment they just stood there, Mary Jane's mind too concerned with finding Jan to realize what she had just seen. Rebecca's face was flushed and she pulled her robe closer around her body.

"Have you seen Jan?" May asked.

"No." Rebecca said nervously.

"I have an idea of where she might be." Mary Jane said reason once more asserting itself. "Come take a look with us."

The control room was never quiet or dark. Even when no one was working there the lights were on and the consoles humming. A shrunken Jan was asleep on the main console. She was wearing a yellow Tinkerbell costume and had curled herself around a dial.

"No honey." Mary Jane said as May reached for her. "I think you better go get her some ice-cream first."

"Ok." May said. "Can I have some too?"

"One dish." Mary Jane said. "Rebecca and I will have one too."

"Ok." May said and was off.

Mary Jane sat in a chair and looked expectantly at Rebecca.

"What?" Rebecca demanded. "I'm old enough to..."

"Your about 18." Mary Jane said. "He's over 90."

"What?"

"Peter told me about it. It was some sort of experimental formula to keep people young. Nick was the only one it worked on."

"Oh." Rebecca said. She looked defiantly at Mary Jane. "It doesn't matter."

"Do you love him?" Mary Jane asked.

_Or do you think you love him? _she added silently. _She's way too young for this. Nick should know better._

"I think so. He makes me feel... I don't know... alive? Like I matter? He... he knows so much, about... so much!"

"How far does it go?" Mary Jane asked and Rebecca blushed.

"Just... just kissing... maybe a little more... He's a good guy Mary Jane. Besides if we leave the planet who else am I going get to know? Some six armed green blob from the dog star!" Her voice started to rise but Mary Jane looked at Jan and Rebecca forced herself to talk quietly. "He's a man, and I'm a woman!"

"He is a man." Mary Jane said. "And you are a woman, but think back a few weeks Rebecca."

"I was..." Rebecca started and then stopped. "I was..."

"You were hypnotized." Mary Jane said. "And suddenly in the space of a few weeks that's gone and you've got the handsome guy showing you all the moves and telling you all the stories about your father. He's with you all the time, training, talking..."

"It's not like that." Rebecca protested, but there was a tremor in her voice.

"Think about it." Mary Jane said. "Think about it hard and think about it a lot... You've grown up so fast in the past few weeks Rebecca, it's dangerous."

"We just talk." Rebecca said sullenly.

"Good evening." Victor said walking into the room. "Is there a reason for this nightly confederation?"

"Jan." Mary Jane said pointing at the still sleeping Wasp.

"I see." Victor said. He settled into the chair at another console and keyed in a sequence.

"Why are you up?" Rebecca asked.

"I had the computer a task to perform." Victor said. "It was due to be done 2 minutes ago."

"You timed it that well?" Rebecca asked.

"Of course." Victor said. "Time is too precious a commodity to be wasted."

"What is the computer supposed to be doing?" Rebecca asked.

"Searching for data." Victor said, not looking up as a page of data began to appear on the screen and scrolled up to be replaced by more pages. "Sentinel robots are still being built, still being designed and upgraded. I would like to know where and by who."

"We were always told the factory was automated." Rebecca said. "In school anyway."

"They lied." Victor said calmly. "They are being built in Mexico, in a former base of the Mole Man."

"Did he helped build them?" Mary Jane asked.

"No. He is dead. But he ruled over a race of simple creatures called: "Moloids", a former slave race created by the Deviants. They are now the force that build the Sentinel robots. They are under the direction of..."

Victor stopped talking and for the first time Mary Jane saw him taken completely by surprise.

"What is it?" she asked.

"According to this report the robots are being upgraded and re-designed by Doctor Doom." Victor said.

A picture appeared and beside it was a paragraph. The picture was of the grey armor and green hood and cloak of Dr. Doom. Mary Jane read from the screen.

"Though crippled this unit still possess the simulated mind of Dr. Doom and thus..."

"Simulated mind?" Rebecca asked.

"One of my robot doubles." Victor said. "Damaged, but still functional enough to upgrade the Sentinel robots." The look on Victor's face was one of sick fascination and more than a little pain. "How ironic."

"Ice cream." May called out. Jarvis and Ben were with her.

Mary Jane awoke the next day and slipped out of bed carefully. May was sleeping soundly beside her, a shrunken Jan held tightly in her arms. Their relationship was beginning to worry Mary Jane. Jan seemed to jump between attaching herself emotionally to May and then to Sue. Mary Jane could understand it, but she worried it was confusing her daughter. Unfortunately there was no way to get May alone for more than five minutes to talk about it.

She dressed quickly headed toward the dining room. May and Jan would sleep for a while longer, they had been up late the night before. Victor had entertained them while they ate ice cream with tales of Greek legends, told at times in Greek, and it had tired May and Jan out following him.

Mary Jane got to the dining room in time to see Nick Fury knocked flat on his back by one punch from Jarvis. For a moment they all stood there.

"The usual breakfast Mrs. Parker?" Jarvis asked calmly, being the first person to recover.

"Ah... yes please Jarvis." Mary Jane said. "Good morning Nick."

"Morning." Nick said. He stood up slowly, exchanged a look with Jarvis and walked out.

"Rebecca?" Mary Jane asked as Jarvis started to prepare the pancakes. She stood in the doorway and watched him work.

"I understand the Mr. Fury has been through an ordeal." Jarvis said. "But a reminder of civilized behavior was needed."

"You hit him." Mary Jane said trying hard not to smile.

"Some times civilized behavior needs an exclamation point." Jarvis said. "I believe I made my point."

"I hope so." Mary Jane said.

"Good morning." Victor said walking into the room. He sat down at the table.

"Good morning sir." Jarvis said. He went back to work and Mary Jane went over to the table and sat down.

"How are you feeling?"

"I am well." Victor said.

"Last night was a bit of a shock." Mary Jane said.

"To say the least."

"Here you are miss." Jarvis said putting a plate of pancakes infront of Mary Jane. "Coffee sir?"

"Yes please." Victor said. "It does upset me that one of my robot doubles is working with the Sentinels, but I'm sure the Doom-bot is working on it's own plan."

"It is?" Mary Jane asked.

"My robot doppelgangers were exquisitely designed and programmed." Victor explained. "Each thought it was me and while I would direct the start of various schemes I would allow the robot free reign after that."

"Why?"

Victor shrugged.

"It served my vanity. One Doom was simply not enough. Also it allowed me to see how my enemies would react without placing myself in danger. There were times when I was wounded and needed time to recover, but did not wish my foes to have the same succor. At the last, it served to enhance my reputation. There was a time after all, when Dr. Doom was everywhere. Few escaped becoming ensnared in my plots."

"And now?"

"Now history mocks me." Victor said taking a sip from the coffee. "If Susan were here she might laugh."

"No she wouldn't." Mary Jane said.

"Perhaps not. Even with the trials she has undergone Susan still remains an exemplary woman. More ruthless than before, but then before she was a heroine."

"She still is." Mary Jane.

"To you and your children, and to Nick, Jarvis and Jan certainly, but to the rest of the world? You know how she was captured."

"I know." Mary Jane said. "And I know how my husband died as well. But you don't put on the costume and put yourself on the line because you expect anything back. You do it because it's the right thing to do."

"Here you are sir." Jarvis said putting a tray of pancakes down in front of him.

"Thank you Jarvis." Victor said. He began to eat but continued talking.

"Why is the right thing to do seldom acknowledged by those it will serve?" Victor asked. "But, no." he stopped Mary Jane before she could answer. "It is because people allow themselves to become lazy thinkers. They do not seek facts and reason where rumor and emotions are more readily at hand. Your husband prowled the streets of New York for over a decade and harmed no one, but few trusted him. Truth, in that world, was not considered important."

"He had an image problem." Mary Jane admitted.

"So did they all, even the best of them." Victor said. "The "mob", "the Great Un-washed", "the peasants"... call them what you will, but seldom did they exercise critical thought on anything but their own lives."

"Most of them were too busy." Mary Jane said.

"That was one problem, and other factors contributed to it. My plans to solve those problems proceed"

"How?" Mary Jane asked.

"First by eliminating the overwhelming desire for riches and power that obsess only a few but infect all. People must work of course, but they should not labor for years at tasks they despise because they must do them to survive. In the world I will build robots will do most of the work, farming, building and manufacturing. The jobs that will be left will be the jobs demanding thought. Engineers, doctors, scientist and others."

"What if someone likes building things?" Mary Jane asked.

"Then they shall do so." Victor said. "Do you know the difference between an artist and a carpenter?"

"One gets paid." Mary Jane said remembering how often her modeling paychecks had bounced.

"No, one builds as he wishes, the other builds as he is told to build."

Mary Jane finished her pancakes and Jarvis appeared beside her.

"Jarvis you wouldn't want to be replaced by a robot would you?" Mary Jane asked.

"I was Mrs. Parker." Jarvis said. "For nearly a year one of the Mad Thinker's robots impersonated me. But to answer your question, no I am quite satisfied with what I do."

"The job of a butler is an art form." Victor said. "To run a household, particularly one that was as vast and unpredictable as Avengers Mansion, is no easy task."

"It was difficult at times." Jarvis said taking the plates and heading into the kitchen.

"Some people just won't want to give up what they do." Mary Jane said.

"No, they won't." Victor replied. "But consider this Mary Jane. The barest requirements for life are food, water, shelter. The barest requirements for a civilized live are varied, but truly no more than food, water, shelter, entertainment and intellectual stimulation. The flaw to the old world was that the challenge to survive had never been supplanted by the challenge to excel. It was so difficult to merely endure, taking at least 10 hours of work per day, that little time and energy was left over for anything else. My plan is simple, reduce the time needed from 10 hours per day to 2 or 3 hours per day, and provide challenges un-related to survival after that."

"You could do that?"

"Yes." Victor said. "I estimate it would take fifty years, at least two generations. That is only part of the problem of course. The other is the nature of man himself. He must be tamed."

"Morning!" Ben called walking into the room on the ceiling.

"Hi Mom!" May called walking in on the floor, a semi-nude Jan was balanced on her shoulder.

"Hey everyone!" Rebecca called.

Mary Jane sighed and realized that the rest of her talk with Victor would have to wait. But the idea of "taming" mankind, by any method, worried her. And if Sue didn't come back Mary Jane wondered if anyone, including herself, had enough strength to oppose Victor.

That afternoon found Mary Jane in the control room watching the screen for any sign of Sue. While she did that May was stuffing Jan into her latest creation.

"Hold still." May ordered.

"I don't want to be Spider Wasp!" Jan squealed laughing as she was forced into the miniature version of Ben's costume.

"There!" May pronounced and let her go. Jan flew up to the console and stood proudly infront of Mary Jane. Jan was wearing a tight red and blue spider suit, similar to Ben's except for a lack of mask and the bare back to let her wings function. Also the spider symbol on her chest was a cut out and it showed a little more of her breasts than Mary Jane was comfortable with.

The alarm sounded before Mary Jane could say anything. She whirled around brushing Jan aside and keyed the sequence into the computer.

"Someone is out there." Mary Jane said bringing the defenses online. The outline of a ship appeared on the screen.

"Sue!" Jan shouted.

"I hope..."

Mary Jane was interrupted as a series of numbers and letters flashed across the screen. The speaker came to life.

"Code word is: death" Sue voice was weak and they could all feel the pain in it even over the speaker."

"Sue!" Mary Jane found her self starting to shout but pulled her voice back to normal.

"It's me Mary Jane. Open the doors."

"Right." Mary Jane said.

"What doors... Shock!" said another voice coming from the speaker.

"Who's that?" Rebecca asked somehow right beside Mary Jane.

"I'll explain when I touch down." Sue said. "Bring band-aids."

The speaker shut off and Mary Jane turned to Rebecca.

"Rebecca go get..."

Nick, Jarvis, May, Doom and Ben stood behind her.

"She's hurt." Mary Jane said.

"I'll get the grav sled from the ship." Ben said running toward the lift.

The Quinjet moved into the cavern like a drunken sailor returning to his ship. It had been damaged by both large and small fire. The engines coughed and sputtered, belching smoke, fire and parts of themselves. A few times Mary Jane was sure that the ship would explode or crash, but it settled back to it's old place between the two Kree space ships. The cavern seemed to shudder as the landing gear slammed into the floor. There was a final explosion from the engines and then the ship settled and was still.

They were all running toward the hatch when it opened and the retractable stairs extended down. Mary Jane wasn't sure how she got to the stairs first, but she was up them and into the ship without realizing it.

"Sue?" she called.

"She's up here." A voice called back. It was a strong voice, with a slightly inhuman tone that Mary Jane could not recognize. A moment later she saw the person who owned the voice. Mary Jane stopped short.

"Mary Jane." Sue called weakly from the pilots seat. "This is Simone, Hawkeye and Tigra's daughter. Simone, this is Mary Jane."

Simone looked at her and Mary Jane found herself looking into the ageless green eyes of a cat. Simone's face was human, framed by short black hair and covered with a soft luster of orange fur. She had the strong cheekbones of her mother and the jaw of her father, a combination that instilled into her face a striking core of iron. Not much would phase this young woman. The rest of her body was both human and cat, with orange fur and black stripes, toes and hands that ended in pads that had retractable claws and a tail that whipped about. She wore a gold tunic that clung to her slim body.

All this Mary Jane would think about later. For now she moved passed the catwoman and her stomach jumped against her lungs. Sue's left arm was hanging at her side, her clothes were shreds and a blood soaked bandage was wrapped around both her stomach and her right leg.

"Shock!" Rebecca swore.

"Give me a hand." Mary Jane ordered.

Simone stepped to one side as Mary Jane and Rebecca lifted a limp Sue out of the seat and carried her down the isle. Ben was waiting with the grav sled and they put Sue onto it.

"We need to get her to the medical bay." Victor said.

It was only when everyone was out of the ship and nearly into the control building that Mary Jane remembered Simone.

"Rebecca." She ordered. "In the ship, her names Simone, go get her, see if she needs anything, then meet us in medical."

"Right."

The medical room scanners showed the inside of Sue's body with ease. They also showed a read out of her vital signs and those signs were abysmally low. Mary Jane and Nick had lifted Sue out of the grav sled and onto the medical table, and then had waited out side at Victor's orders. They gathered in an office next to the medical room. A cold featureless room that offered only a view screen into the operating room along with a conference table and some chairs. Only May and Jan were allowed to stay, May to aid him and Jan because she simply would not leave. Mary Jane could only stand to watch for a few seconds at a time as her daughter and Victor worked on Sue. A few minutes after Sue was floated in Rebecca and Simone appeared.

"How is she?" Simone asked.

"We won't know for a while." Mary Jane said. "Are you alright."

"I'll live."

"But will you enjoy it?" Ben asked. He was wearing his Spiderman suit and looked as young as Mary Jane wished she were.

"If she lives I'll think about it." Simone said, giving him a quizzical look.

"You're Tigra's gal." Nick said.

"Nick Fury?" Simone looked at him and a feral snarl raged across her face. Sharp claws appeared at the ends of her fingers and only an immense effort of self control stopped her. "Figures." She said after a few moments to pull herself back from the edge. "Dad always said cockroaches would survive anything."

"That's not fair." Rebecca said, stepping in front of Nick."

"What's fair is that my dads dead and he's alive." Simone said. "That's life's idea of fair and life stinks."

"It wasn't his fault." Jarvis said. "Mr. Fury was under the influence of a powerful telepath."

"Prove it." Simone challenged.

"I got no way to prove it." Nick said. "Either believe it or don't."

Simone moved Rebecca aside and walked over to him. Before anyone could stop her the catwoman's claws were edged onto Nick's neck. Only a little pressure would be needed to break the skin. No one moved. Simone moved closer to him, standing on her toes.

"It's the truth." Mary Jane said. "Sue believed him."

"Is it the truth?" Simone asked.

"Why'd ya take my word for it?" Nick said. His one good eye didn't leave her face and his body was rigid.

"Say yes or no." Simone growled.

"Yes." Nick said. "My brain was scrambled for years before the Day."

Simone stepped back, dropping her hand from his throat.

"Poor dad." she said. "He died hating your guts."

"You do believe him?" Ben asked.

Simone pointed to her face and smiled.

"The nose knows." She said. "I can smell emotions, I can smell when someone's lying or telling the truth."

"Shock!" Ben said. "That's cool."

"Yea it is." Simone said smiling at him. She sat down at the table and looked at Nick. "I'm sorry Mr. Fury, but I grew up hearing stories about how you helped destroy the world. Dad used to use a picture of you as target practice."

Rebecca went over and tried to put her arm on Nick but he pulled away and sat down at the table. Rebecca was at a loss as to what to do next. Mary Jane stood up eased her into the chair next to Nick's. Nick didn't seem to notice her and Mary Jane fought to keep herself under control.

"Hawkeye's dead?" Nick asked.

"Yea." Simone kept her own voice calm but her breathing picked up a pace.

"What about Tigra?" Nick asked.

"My mother's with Zemo." Simone said with a voice that was strong with anger. "Like I said, Dad's dead." She looked at the screen. "I'd be dead too if it weren't for her."

"Join the club." Ben said. "I don't think we've met anyone she hasn't saved yet. I think it's her way of making friends."

Simone laughed at the joke and it was a laugh combined with a slight purr. A very strange sound to Mary Jane's ears.

"How did it happen?" Mary Jane asked.

"Dad and I had had it." Simone said. "Living under Zemo... I think... Look..."

"It's ok." Rebecca said. "We were in Las Vegas. I don't think the Taskmaster is any different."

"I hope he is." Simone said. "Those who are born to rule shall rule, and a Zemo is born to rule." she said the sentence in a burlesque German accent and her tone took on a low, bombastic projection that nearly brought a smile to their faces.

"How did Hawkeye and Tigra end up working for Zemo?" Nick asked.

"Me." Simone said. "Mom and dad were heading toward Wakanda to help out when the Sentinels attacked. They got shot down and by the time they walked out of the jungle it was all over. Mom was pregnant with me, the Sentinels were all over the place... Dad and Mom made a deal. I grow up with some safety, they work for Zemo."

"There weren't many choices back then." Mary Jane said softly.

"Dad took the end of the world kinda hard." Simone said. "When he wasn't off on a mission for B.Z. he hit the bottle. I never saw it, directly, but I can smell things a mile away. Mom joined him, mostly, but she stopped sooner than he did. Then she got pregnant again, but Dad did the math. Then he really started drinking."

"I don't understand." Ben said.

"My mom slept with B.Z. while dad was in Europe." Simone said. "She and her new kid are still with him."

"When did your father decide to leave?" Mary Jane asked.

"Right after the Red Skull was killed. Dad said if the Skull's castle could be taken out by aliens then B.Z.'s could too. I think it was just the best excuse he could come up with. But B.Z. wouldn't let him go and mom told me to stay put. It took us a while to figure a way out and a place to go. We were gonna try to get to England. We got the last Quinjet and fired her up and out of there a few weeks ago." she laughed. "I thought it was the last one anyway."

"Ours was stored in a safe house." Mary Jane said. "The Red Skull's men caught us and were taking us to him when Sue and Jan rescued us."

"You were lucky." Simone said. "I've heard some bad things about what he did to prisoners."

"They were all true." Nick said. "That alien attack was Sue and them, and Sue cut the Skull's head off."

"Well that was too quick a death." Simone remarked casually. "Couldn't she have staked him out on an ant hill or something?"

"That's no way to treat ants." Ben said and Simone smiled at him.

"How did Sue find you?" Rebecca asked.

"There's a new group in Africa." Simone said. "They had tech-weps, good enough to down us. Dad and I fought for a few days, but there were too many of them."

"How come the good guys are always outnumbered?" Ben asked.

"They beat Dad up pretty bad." Simone said, her voice calm despite the pain in her eyes. "But a few nights later I was able to get us out. We were running, but they would have caught us, when suddenly someone started shooting at them."

"Sue." Nick said.

"Yea. She just appeared right next to us, told us where to find the Quinjet, to get going and come back with it, she'd hold them off." Simone seemed to look inward in puzzlement. "I never met her before, but she shows up, gives me a way to get me and Dad gone and safe, but trusts me to come back for her."

"S.O.P. for superheroes." Ben said.

"By the time we got back she was pretty shot up. I went out and got her back into the jet, Dad was covering us at the door but took a shot in the head."

Mary Jane reached out and put a hand on her shoulder. Simone's voice was calm but her body trembled with the effort not to cry.

"Sue got to the controls and got us out of there, I must have blacked out after that, the next thing I new we in Antarctica."

Simone's hand trembled as she reached up and took Mary Jane's.

"Dad's dead. I don't want to see Mom ever. I guess your stuck with me."

"Your welcome here of course." Mary Jane said.

"For as long as we stay anyway." Ben said.

"What?"

"Once those space ships out there are fixed we're leaving the planet." Ben said.

"Leave Earth?" Simone's voice and the look on her face showed shock. "You can do that?"

"In another few weeks the ships will be ready." Mary Jane said. "But don't make a decision now." Mary Jane glanced up at the screen where Victor and May were still working. "I don't think we should decide anything right now."

It was hours before Victor stepped out of the medical room. Cradled in his arms was a sleeping May. Jarvis had brought food for all of them but not much of it was eaten. Rebecca and Simone talked quietly to each other, with Ben clinging to the wall and piping in every so often. Mary Jane didn't need to listen to see the instant friendship between the two girls. Nick sat expressionless in his chair. Mary Jane knew he had gone through many times like this, but she wondered if he recognized how hard it was on Rebecca.

"She will live." Victor said before anyone could ask. The relief that flowed though them all could almost be seen as a physical being. He handed May to Mary Jane. "Thanks in many ways to your daughter."

"Where's Jan?" Ben asked.

"She will not leave the room." Victor said. "And Susan should be watched in any case."

"We'll take turns until she wakes up." Mary Jane said. "For now I think we should all get some rest."

"I will stay with her for the time being Mrs. Parker." Jarvis said.

"Thanks Jarvis."

"Come on." Rebecca said to Simone. "You can take the room next to mine."

Mary Jane put May into the bed and then went and sat down. She was tired, but too many things had just been introduced, things that had to be sorted out. A knock on the door stopped her even before she started.

"Come in." she said softly.

"I wanted to make sure May was alright." Victor said.

"She's fine." Mary Jane said. "How about you?"

"Fatigued as well." Victor said. "And more relieved than mere words can express." He moved over to May and looked down at her. "There was a time Mary Jane when the destruction of the Fantastic Four obsessed me. It was goal, a task that consumed my thoughts both in this world and while in sleep I strode the pathways of Morpheus. But this day I strove with every ounce of knowledge and skill I possessed to save one of its members. It's last member."

"There is nothing wrong with that." Mary Jane said. "You're not Dr. Doom anymore, you know that."

"If I am not Dr. Doom what... who am I?" he strode over to her. "Does Victor Von Doom have the power, the drive, the ambition to set the world right once more? In that operating room Victor Von Doom would have failed if not for your daughters help."

"Are you afraid that you need someone else's help sometimes Victor?" Mary Jane asked.

"I nearly lost her!" Victor said anger, pain and desperation competing in his voice.

And suddenly Mary Jane did understand. In a terrible instant of clarity she knew.

"You... you love her!" Mary Jane whispered. Victor nodded. "My God Victor..."

"She does not know." He said. "She can not know. I was her greatest enemy, I strove to kill her and her family... what would she now think if I professed to love her? You do not know Mary Jane; what I was, the deeds I did in the name of Doom. To approach her now, or even when she recovers... it would be to reveal my wretched weakness and she would laugh and pity me as I..."

"Victor." Mary Jane interrupted him. She took the two steps necessary and threw her arms around him, hugging him. "Do you feel that?" Mary Jane tightened her grip. "You don't wear the armor anymore Victor, Sue knows that. Are either of you the same people you were 14 years ago?" Mary Jane let him go and stepped back.

"I do know what you were Victor. I was married to Spiderman remember? Do you think I'd let Doctor Doom anywhere near my kids?"

Victor looked at May.

"Your husband was a many easily underestimated."

"He liked it that way." Mary Jane said.

"Indeed." Victor took a deep breath and let it out. "It is a foolish love, I know that. A hopeless love, for she means to abandon this world. It was a love I did not realized until her heart stopped on the operating table. In that instant I knew that life without her would stretch out before me as a lonely, dusty road. Selfish fool that I am I would not allow her the peace of death."

"Sue doesn't want to die." Mary Jane said.

"Doesn't she?" Victor demanded. "After everything she has been through, torments even you and I can not imagine..."

"She's not a quitter." Mary Jane insisted. "And she knows we need her."

Victor let out a short laugh but a second later looked at her.

"I once thought the world needed Victor Von Doom more than any other person who had ever lived, while Victor Von Doom needed no one."

"Victor we all need someone."

"I did not."

"Yes you did, you just didn't realize it. You locked yourself into that armor and never came out."

"And that armor was stripped from me, both literally and emotionally. And now I stand naked in the path of a storm that will finally destroy me. When Susan realizes my feelings, as she will no doubt, what then will be left to me but her scorn and pity? Certainly I can lay no claim to her."

"You're borrowing trouble." Mary Jane said. "Sue isn't even awake yet."

"Better she sleeps and I cling to a slim hope."

"You can't worship an idol forever." Mary Jane said. "The only thing you can do is wait and hope that she sees you differently sooner or later."

"And if she does not see me in the way I hope she shall?"

"Then live with it." Mary Jane said. "Just like everyone else does at one time or another in their lives."

Victor went over and looked down at May again.

"I thought your husband a fool. It seems he had far more wisdom than I thought."

"Victor..."

"No." He turned and faced her, his face composed once more. "No more talk, you have allowed me to bare my soul, for that I am grateful. But I now must face these questions alone."

He gave her slight bow.

"Thank you, good night."

Victor was gone before Mary Jane could think of anything else to say. After he left Mary Jane put on a nightgown and got into bed. She needed to think, but after this latest revelation Mary Jane needed to rest even more. The next few weeks would be hard.

"Told ya she looked good." Ben said. Mary Jane was just coming onto the practice field to call them for lunch. Simone had been sparing with Ben and Rebecca but Rebecca had not been wearing the American Witch costume. Now she stood in front of Simone and Mary Jane could tell that not all the awkwardness of the teenager had left her. Ben was wearing his own costume and Simone was wearing skimpy grey halter top that constantly threatened to ride up beyond decency and a pair of grey bikini bottoms. Simone's outfit hugged her body and Mary Jane knew that her son was staring at it, even though his mask covered his eyes.

"It does look good." Simone said stepping around Rebecca to get a look at the costume. Mary Jane stiffened as Simone stepped close to Rebecca and seemed to sniff her. "What's wrong."

"Nothing." Rebecca said stepping away from her.

"What about me?" Ben asked pulling his mask off.

"You look good too." Simone said. "But why the costumes if you plan on leaving the planet anyway?"

"I'll be back someday." Rebecca said and Mary Jane's heart caught in her throat at the tone she used. It was one of absolute certainty, almost fanatical intensity of purpose.

"Lunchtime!" Mary Jane called walking over to them. "Where's Nick?"

"Working on the Quinjet." Rebecca said. "I'll get him."

Rebecca headed toward the Quinjet and Ben was already bounding toward the control building doors. Mary Jane followed him and Simone fell into step beside her.

"What's wrong?" Simone asked.

"Something's wrong?"

Simone leaned into her and Mary Jane heard her intake of breath.

"Yep. I can smell emotions, if I licked you I could almost tell what you were thinking."

"No licking." Mary Jane said. "And prying into other peoples feelings isn't polite."

"People bottle themselves up too much." Simone said. "It's kinda hard to ignore it when they shout, and scents to me are like people shouting."

"Then why did you sniff me just then." Mary Jane asked as they went through the doors.

"Cause I wasn't sure. Once I get to know everyone better I'll be sure."

They stepped into the elevator and Mary Jane turned to her as the doors closed.

"It's a handy talent." Simone said. "I can't stop knowing, so I get better at it."

The elevator doors opened and Victor appeared in front of them.

"Susan is awakening Mary Jane." he said.

The Invisible Woman's skin was pale as parchment. Mary Jane could almost see the bones and muscle underneath. But it was her eyes that chilled. Pain and defeat reached out from those eyes and pulled at Mary Jane. One her stomach, wrapped in part of the blanket that covered Sue, slept Jan.

"How are you feeling?" Mary Jane asked.

"Cold." Sue said. "Is everyone ok?"

"Oh yea." Mary Jane pulled up a chair and sat down. "I should thank you for bringing my son another girl to stare at."

Sue smiled wanly.

"I knew that I had to get back. Ben didn't have enough women in his life. How long have I been out?"

"Two days."

"No sign of pursuit?"

"Nope."

"Good." Sue reached up and let her hand close on Jan. "May must be lonely at night."

"She's been sleeping with me." Mary Jane said. "After the operation she got a little scared."

"Why?"

"She and Victor almost lost you." Mary Jane said. "The way May says it she could feel a dark place trying to drag you away from her."

"I felt her." Sue said. "I didn't want to feel her, I wanted her to let go."

"If she did you would have died." Mary Jane said. Sue looked away. "You wanted to die?"

"I'm used up Mary Jane." Sue said. "Anger kept me going, but in the jungle I wasn't angry, I was scared. Terrified. I couldn't move. Because of that Hawkeye died." Sue looked back at her. "When their Quinjet went down it sent out an automatic distress call. I heard it. But I was heading out at that point. The Quinjets distress call showed me who was in it, and who they were fighting and what they were fighting. I knew that the people they were fighting could take down my Quinjet. I knew I could be captured."

Sue started to cry.

"I was scared. For five minutes I kept going, kept running. When I finally got the nerve up to turn around... I landed too far away. I didn't get to them in time. Hawkeye's dead because of me."

"No he isn't." Mary Jane said. Desperately she tried to find the words she needed. "He died when a stray shot hit him. If you had gotten there earlier that shot might still have hit him. You can't say that you would have saved him."

The door opened and Mary Jane looked up sharply. Victor had told her that Sue was weak and emotionally depressed. Mary Jane had told the rest of them to turn off the monitor and wait. Simone walked over to them.

"It wasn't your fault." Simone said ignoring the look Mary Jane gave her.

"I'm sorry." Sue whispered. "I'm so sorry."

Simone took hold of her hand.

"Dad used to say that he was living on borrowed time; that he didn't have a chance in hell of seeing his hair go grey. You got to us when we were on the run, at least two miles from the camp. The tech-weps were too far away, that's why the Quinjet got out of there." She took a deep breath. "And I didn't want to go back for you at first. I was scared. I've never been raped; but I've always been scared of it. I saw my mom rapped once, when one of her old enemies got past the compound security. I knew that if we got caught again I'd be raped, then sold. They were just waiting on delivery of one of those collars."

"I..."

"No." Simone said. "The person who's at fault for my dad's death is the one who shot him. And he's dead. I'm alive because of you."

"You're welcome." Sue whispered and fell limp. For a moment Mary Jane wondered if Sue had died and her heart jumped. Then she saw the read out and realized that Sue had merely fallen asleep.

Mary Jane slumped in her chair in relive and looked at Simone.

"My ears are better than average." Simone said. "I heard her through the door."

"Thank you."

"Ben filled me in on a lot of what Jan and her went through." Simone said. "I'd be scared too. Think she'll be ok now?"

"I think she has a chance." Mary Jane said.

__

As much as any of us do. Mary Jane added.

Everyone agreed to take turns watching Sue until she was well enough to walk out of the medical bay. Sue took the constant companionship with more good humor than Mary Jane expected.

"I've always been a good patient." Sue said.

"What?" Mary Jane looked up from the data pad she was reading. Sue had been asleep when she had relieved May.

"You were worried I'd be growling and snapping at everyone." Sue said. "You're daughter is not good at keeping secrets."

"I sort of expected it." Mary Jane said smiling.

Sue sighed.

"Anger burns out after a while, or it got shot out of me. Either way I'm not sorry to see it go. What are you looking at?"

"Victor's latest summary of the world." Mary Jane said. "The Kingpin's armies are gathering in Africa, but there is a plague starting to run up and down the Eastern seaboard. Victor isn't sure if the Kingpin will divert resources to fight it."

"He will." Sue said.

"How can you be sure? Peter fought him more times than the Fantastic Four, he always said that nothing mattered to the Kingpin except his family and his power."

"His powerbase is New York." Sue said. "Even a tyrant needs subjects. What is happening in Africa?"

"Chaos." Mary Jane said. "Baron Zemo is killing everyone he even thinks is in league with the Greys. Europe's the big puzzle though; there is no plague but the population keeps going down."

"Sentinels." Sue said sadly. She laid back down. "Stealth bots are taking out people at random, paving the way for the Greys to take over."

"That's a good guess."

Sue smiled wanly. It troubled Mary Jane that it was the only sort of smile she seemed to be capable of.

"The FF used to be sought after as trouble shooters by various Galactic Empires. Reed had a reputation for being completely impartial. I've seen how empires fall and how its caused. You start small, nibble away at the foundation, take out a leader or two, then find someway to weaken the population, then you nibble a bit more and when the time is right you move in and take over."

"I guess Europe is weak enough." Mary Jane said.

"I think they would have liked to have waited a few more years." Sue said. "But without the Skull and Atlantis they can't ship the drugs, and Zemo won't cooperate."

"Why not?"

"He wants to use Europe as a pawn to keep the Greys out of Africa." Sue sighed. "It's an international game of chess Mary Jane. Just like the one that killed my family and your husband and millions of others. The sooner we are off this planet the better."

"Well Simone will have no trouble going with us."

"I didn't think she would." Sue said. She took a deep breath. "Am I going crazy or do I smell roses in here?"

Mary Jane sniffed the air. Sue was right, the aroma of roses after a summer rain had replaced the normally antiseptic smell of the medical room. Before she could agree there was a knock on the door.

"Come in." Sue called.

Victor entered and walked over to them. Mary Jane noticed the slight stiffness in the way he walked, the almost uncertainty, but Sue did not.

"I hope I am not disturbing you." he said.

"You did the air?" Sue asked.

"Yes. As I recall roses were your favorite flower."

"Were and are." Sue said smiling at him. For an instant Mary Jane saw the Sue of before the Day. Victor saw it too.

"I also brought you this." he said handing her a data pad. "The Kree also did a study on Terran literature."

"Barbara Cartland's best romances." Sue said. She looked at the display wistfully. I haven't read a romance..." Sue looked at him and again favored him with a smile. "Thank you Victor, thank you very much."

"You're welcome. Now if you will excuse me I have things to attend to."

He gave a slight bow to both of them and then left.

"Roses and Romance novels." Sue said. "Better be careful, Victor may try to invite me to dinner next."

She laughed and Mary Jane joined in, and hoped that Sue didn't realize her laugh was faked.

Mary Jane winced, but forced herself to smile and nod.

"Your just making yourself crazy." Sue said.

"Are mothers ever sane where their kids are concerned?" Mary Jane asked.

They were in the control room and Mary Jane was watching as Ben, Simone and Rebecca worked out at mock combat with Nick watching them. They had started out with distance attacks, Rebecca's shield and Ben's webs against a pair of low impact stun guns wielded by Simone. Then they had closed to hand to hand fighting. Ben's hands were finding places to grab on both girls that was very disturbing to Mary Jane. Rebecca wasn't fond of it either, and said so often enough, but Simone just laughed and gave as good as she got. To both of them. It was a situation guaranteed to increase the grey hairs on Mary Jane's head. The break between Rebecca and Nick had left no visible wounds in her adoptive daughter, but Rebecca had always been withdrawn about her feelings. She had quickly grown closer to Simone, forming an almost classic shy girl/extrovert girl pairing. It would have been bad enough had they been in a normal teen age girl situation, the fact that they were not... Simone constantly flirted with Rebecca, and with Ben for that matter. Mary Jane couldn't begin to understand what growing up in a tyrants compound was like. While her children were not naive they were not ready for the emotional games that Simone could play.

__

If she is playing them? Mary Jane thought. _Could be she likes both of them the same way, and how is Ben going to react to that? We might be cooped up in a space ship for months!_

Sue limped up to the window and joined her. two and a half weeks had brought a good deal of her strength back, much to Mary Jane's amazement. Sue had nearly died, to be up and about in such a short time seemed wrong somehow. But between May and Victor Sue had gotten the best of care, and her own cosmically charged blood had helped. 

"They're teenagers all of them." Sue said leaning on Mary Jane's shoulders. "Using up all that energy is probably a good idea."

"I think it's generating more energy than it's releasing." Mary Jane said.

"Ben." Sue said. "I know. I've noticed how he's the first off of the practice field and how he doesn't show up again for at least a half hour."

"I'm sure Simone knows it too." Mary Jane said. "But how do I talk to her about it?"

"I think you should leave it alone. Let them sort it out on their own. That's the hardest part of being a mother, believe me I know."

"She's doing it to Rebecca too." Mary Jane said. "Hell for that matter I think she's playing it to Nick too."

"She's Tigra's daughter." Sue said. There was a strain in her voice and she turned around. Mary Jane left the window and helped Sue into her chair. Her leg was still slow to heal.

"What have we got?" Mary Jane asked pushing her other worries out of her mind for the moment.

"Zen La." Sue said. "Peaceful, advanced and I know the Empress Shalla Ball. She was the Silver Surfer's wife for a while, the Fantastic Four helped rescue her from Mephisto. She'll welcome us and then some."

"Well we have five more days then." Mary Jane said.

"Five days." Sue repeated and the worry in her voice was a full worry. "If anything is going to go wrong it will go wrong soon."

"I hope not." Mary Jane said.

"Me too."

"What about Victor and Nick?" Mary Jane asked.

"Victor..." Sue trailed off and Mary Jane could guess why. She had never guessed that Victor Von Doom could be a charming suitor, but he had proven to be very skilled at it. He had known Sue a long time and he used that knowledge and combined it with her injury. The roses smell in the medical room, the romance novels, those had just been the beginning. Victor had dug deep into the Kree database and come out with old movies, providing them all with entertainment that the children had never seen. Showing the movies after the evening meal had brought them all closer together, and Mary Jane didn't miss that he always sat next to Sue. They would have whispered conversations and Mary Jane wondered if Sue realized what he was doing. Mary Jane had closed herself off to any man, fearing what could happen if she were ever to fall in love and he discovered her and her children's true identities. She had slept with many men, it had been part of Mary Jane's job. Some she liked, some she didn't, but even with the worst of them there had been some slight emotional feeling. But for Sue no man had paid her any attention except to rape her for more than a decade. And now that she had let go of her anger and hatred...

What worried Mary Jane was Sue's reaction when she realized what Victor's true intentions were. Sue was only beginning to become a whole person again. If she thought Victor was playing her... Mary Jane shuddered at the thought.

"Sue?" Mary Jane asked. Sue had been silent for nearly a minute.

"Sorry." Sue said quickly. "Spaced out for a minute I guess. I don't know about Victor and Nick. Victors..." she shrugged.

"He's been working on his own plan." Mary Jane said.

"That much about him hasn't changed." Sue said. "Even if so much else has."

Mary Jane heard the elevator door open and looked up to see May and Jan walk into the room, followed by Victor.

"Training done for the day?" Sue asked.

"Yes." Victor said. "Indeed I can now say with confidence that May has the medical training of a second year medical student."

"That's wonderful honey." Mary Jane said giving her daughter a hug.

"Way better than fighting." May said smugly.

"I slept through it." Jan said flittering around their heads. She was wearing a tiny blue furry bikini. "It was boring."

"May would you please go and help Jarvis prepare lunch?" Victor asked. "I would like to talk to your mother and Susan alone."

"Ok."

"Cookies!" Jan shouted and flew off ahead of her.

Victor waited until they were gone and then sat in the console next to Sue's.

"A time of decision is coming ladies."

"I know." Sue said. "You can come with us Victor, I'm sure Shalla Bal won't hold a grudge."

"Though Zenn La is a paradise is it not home." Victor said. "This planet needs me."

"Humanity is a wreck." Sue said.

Before Victor could reply to that a clear toned alarm erupted from Sue's console. She whirled around, her hands reaching for the controls. In an instant a diagram of the base appeared. In the far end a red circle appeared.

"Seismic breach." Sue said crisply. "An underground craft is burrowing its way into the base."

"The Sentinels would have use of such things." Victor said, busy at work at his own console. "But the air and ground space around us is clear."

"What ever it is we better go meet it." Sue said.

Five minutes later they stood at the far end of the cavern. Mary Jane held a Kree riffle and tried not to shake. Beside her May and Jan stood, but only Jan was holding another rifle. May flatly refused. Mary Jane was both proud of, and scared for, her daughter. Further away Jarvis, Nick and Simone stood ready with their own guns while Ben and Rebecca stood ready as well. It didn't escape Mary Jane's notice that Sue and Victor stood at the front of the group. Victor carried a gun, but Sue carried the most powerful plasma gun the base amory could supply. She balanced on her cane and held it with one hand. The old, harsh look had been on her face when she picked it out.

__

She was right. Mary Jane thought. _Five days more and we could have been out of this place, or at least had the option. Now what? Greys? Sentinels? HYDRA? AIM? What did we do to have so many enemies? Why are we so important?_

Mary Jane moved subtly closer to her daughter. May might not be prepared to fight, but Mary Jane would fight and more to protect her.

The ground shook and then flew out in all directions as the craft broke through. Stones small and large bounced off of the force field that Sue had erected between them and the craft.

The part that could be seen was like a child's top, with a cone shaped drill head slowly stopping. Bellow that was a tube with the outline of a hatch. The craft was dull gray with no markings or color. It was at least 20 feet around and stuck out of the Earth some 15 feet. Mary Jane felt her stomach drop as the hatch began to open.

"Stand ready but no one shoot before me!" Sue shouted. If there was terror in her voice Mary Jane couldn't hear it and Mary Jane knew Sue was scared.

There was a hiss of equalizing air as the hatch opened. After a minute Namorita stepped out. She was wearing a royal blue dress and a silver crown was on her head.

"Sue wait!" She called. "I need to talk to you."

If a person could visibly radiate anger than Sue Richards was doing it. Mary Jane couldn't see Sue's face, but she could see the woman become steel stiff.

"We need to talk to you Sue." said the man who emerged from the craft. He stood tall and proud, with no hint of age to dull Namor's appearance. He took a few steps to join his cousin and they walked toward Sue and Victor.

"Namor." Sue hissed the word with so much hate Mary Jane was astonished the mere sounds didn't attack the pair. But it didn't matter since Sue raised her riffle and fired.

The red beam of energy reached out and shocked Namora and Namorita where they stood and each fell screaming in pain. Mary Jane was moving the instant Sue fired and reached her side when Sue stopped. At her feet the two Atlanteans lay limp, red and blue energy still discharging from their bodies.

"Damn." Sue said. "Damn that felt good." Her voice was calm but her face was red and the scar across it almost glowed.

...To be continued.


	6. Chapter 6

End of Hope

Chapter 6

_Damn but that felt so good. _Sue thought. In front of her on the ground lay Namor, prince of Alantis and his sister Namorita. The energy discharge from the Kree plasma gun she used still lingered, randomly causing multicolored lightning bolts to dance around their bodies. Their faces were twisted in agony and that gave Sue an overwhelming feeling of pleasure.

"Damn. Damn that felt good." Sue said aloud.

"Sue!" Mary Jane asked. Sue looked at her and was amazed that she was not horrified by the sight in Mary Jane's eyes.

"They're not dead Mary Jane." Sue said. She showed her the plasma gun's energy setting. "Heavy duty stun. They'll be out for a while."

"But they said they wanted to talk." Rebecca cried, running up from where she and Simone had been standing ready.

"And I said if she showed up here again before we left I'd kill her and anyone with her." Sue said. She was feeling giddy, almost euphoric. "We both lied."

"But..."

"It's alright Rebecca." Sue said forcing herself to sound reasonable. "Namor is used to getting knocked out." She turned to Victor. "Can you check the drill machine and make sure it isn't going to broadcast a homing or distress signal."

"Of course." Victor said. There was a look on his face, Sue wasn't sure what it was. Victor was handsome, with brown hair and brown eyes. The only thing that marred his face was a slight scar. He moved cautiously toward the tunneling machine.

"Kinda harsh wasn't it?" Ben asked. In his Spiderman suit Ben Parker almost looked ready for Halloween, but his powers were the same as his fathers.

_You bet it was! _Sue smiled to herself but kept the thought to herself as well. _And I enjoyed every second of it, and I'd do it again if I could. Just the way he said my name, as if he expected me to be reasonable!_

Sue felt anger rising within her and forced it back down. She handed the gun to Mary Jane and bent down. Namor hadn't aged at all. His jet black hair was still cut short, revealing the aquiline face and pointed ears she had once found attractive. His body was slim but solid. He wore only a pair of belted green swimming trunks. Sue pulled the buckle off of the swim trunks and looked at it closely. At a thought from her the outer casing turned invisible, revealing a small electronic device. Sue put the buckle aside and then, ignoring the gasp of surprise from everyone else, she reached down the front of his trunks and moved her hand around. Her search turned up another, smaller electronic device. She put it with the first one and then leaned over to Namorita.

"You want help?" Ben asked.

"Ben!" Mary Jane snapped.

"Just offering." Ben said.

"It's alright Mary Jane." Sue said. She reached over and took the crown from Namorita's forehead. It was a tiara, well made from gold and it too was full of hidden electronics.

"The craft is shut down and there are no devices active or otherwise to worry about." Victor said.

"They had these." Sue said handing him the two belt buckles and the tiara. "They might have more."

"Doubtful." Victor said. "I will set the base scanners to warn us if any signal is detected and jam it before it reaches the outside world."

"They said they came to talk." Rebecca protested. "You didn't give them a chance."

"I gave her a chance when I told her not to come back." Sue said. "Namor's lucky I don't fry him now."

"Sue you can't kill them." Mary Jane said. "You know that."

_Let me live the fantasy, please! _Sue thought. Yet she knew Mary Jane was right. In combat, in different circumstances Sue could kill. But not this way, not with a person laying helpless at her feet. She looked and saw the fear in Mary Jane's eyes. That same fear had been there weeks ago, when Sue had pinned Mary Jane to the wall of her bathroom. That looked had been enough to make Sue sick then, now it was enough to quell her anger and shock and let her think.

"I'm not going to kill them Mary Jane." Sue said. "We've got about five days before we leave. They can cool their heels in the detention cells."

"What about what they were going to say?" Rebecca asked.

"I know what they were going to say." Sue said. "Not word for word, but close enough."

"Well I think we should hear them out." Rebecca said.

"You do." Sue said turning slowly to look at her.

"I do." Rebecca said. "Everyone deserves a chance to be heard. We did it with Nick, even Simone did it with Nick, who's to say that the White Queen wasn't affecting Namor as well?"

"That is very doubtful." Victor said.

"But possible." Rebecca said. "We have to be fair."

_The hell we do!_ Sue wanted to scream the thought. She wanted to shove Rebecca to the other end of the cavern and then...

The anger broke as Sue looked at the younger woman. Sue was over forty, Rebecca was barely 19. But it was Rebecca who seemed linked to the past and Sue who faced the present and the future. She had made herself a costume, given herself a name. Just as Sue had once done.

_Does she think it's that easy? _Sue wondered. _She can't think that, she's not an idiot. Neither were her parents, and damn if they wouldn't be proud of her right now? She wants to be fair? Because of that fairness her parents were murdered before her eyes!_

"Fair can get us killed. Or worse." Sue said.

"We trusted Namorita to leave." Rebecca insisted. "I'd like to know why she broke that trust."

"That's simple." Sue snapped. "Atlantis is in trouble. And like he has done so many times Namor has come looking for help, even though he turned my son over to the Greys and has been smuggling drugs into Europe, food out of America and deals secretly with the Greys and the Kingpin. Do you really want to trust a man who does all that?"

"No." Rebecca said. "But I want to hear what Namorita has to say."

Sue's soul seethed with frustration at the calm and adamant tone in Rebecca's voice. She hadn't realized just how much the daughter of Captain America and the Scarlet Witch had grown.

"Ok." Sue said. With a thought she used an invisible force field to lift Namor and his sister of off the ground. "I'll put them in a containment cell and we'll listen, but no one sees them but me and they are not getting out of that cell until those ships are ready to go."

"If no one sees them but you how do we hear them out?" Ben asked.

"Victor can rig a link to the dining room." Sue said. "If I talk to them alone I might get the truth, but alone only. Namor loves an audience and he can talk when he wants to."

"Meaning you don't trust us to tell if he's telling the truth or not?" Simone asked stepping up beside Rebecca.

"Namor is stronger than anyone here." Sue said. "You get close enough to smell him and he'll grab you."

"If you are planning to move them Susan I think you should do so." Victor said. "Before they wake up. I shall put the audio/video link into operation."

"Thank you Victor."

Sue lifted Namorita and Namor on her force field and slowly limped toward the main building. Behind her they all followed.

Each detention cell was a small 10 foot by 10 foot room. They held two bunks, a small chemical toilet and nothing else. The walls were dull grey and the light source was outside the cell in the corridor. There were no bars. Instead the cell was enveloped with randomly shifting force fields. The place could have held the Thing, Sue knew it would hold the Atlanteans. She sat on a chair outside of the cell and waited for them to wake up. Simone and Rebecca had grumbled a bit more but Mary Jane had backed Sue up, as had Victor and Nick.

_Are those two lovers? _Sue wondered. _Or is Simone just playing follow the leader? She was raised in Zemo's palace, she can't be as naive as Rebecca. Maybe it's just friendship. Maybe she's looking for a cause, and god Rebecca has one! She has principles, a cause and power, but she doesn't have enough of the last one to make the difference. If I leave her here she'll be in a Greys hell camp inside of a year, if she lives._

Namor and Namorita started to stir and Sue brought her mind to the pair of them. Everyone was watching through the link and Sue knew there was a lot riding on this conversation.

"Why did you shoot us?" Namor demanded his face angry as he climbed to his feet. Sue just looked at him coldly.

"Sue I didn't want to do this but we need help." Namorita said. She sat up but did not stand up.

"Where is Doom?" Namor walked up to the force field. "I demand to see him!"

Still Sue didn't say anything and the sub-mariner growled and lashed out at the force field. Sue didn't flinch and his blow had no effect.

"I made you a promise Namorita." Sue said. "And you made me one. You made all of us a promise."

"No one else knows where we are." Namorita protested. "But we need your help."

"Saving your life, rescuing you from the Red Skull, putting you and Mystique into Africa close enough to get to the ocean, risking my life... I was pinned down by Greys troops after you and Mystique left, for days I had to stay awake and keep the Quinjet invisible, and I still barely made it out alive. You still need my help?" Sue put all of her scorn in to the last few words of the sentence and Namorita looked away.

"We need Doom's help." Namor said. "Where is he?"

"Busy." Sue said.

"Get him." Namor commanded in a tone that wasn't used to being ignored. Sue didn't ignore it, she laughed at it. Namor's face turned red and again he pounded on the cell's force field.

"Sue please will you just listen to us?" Namorita pleaded. "I know your angry, but I wouldn't have come here without a reason."

"Anger is a pale word indeed for the emotions that are vexing the Invisible Woman." Victor said stepping into the corridor. Sue's head snapped around and she glared at him.

"Doom?" Namor asked, as put off by Victor's appearance as Sue was.

"Susan we must speak now." Victor said.

"Doom we must speak!" Namor shouted.

"You'll have to wait." Sue said. She got up and limped over to Victor.

"No!" Namor shouted and again attacked the force field. He kept doing it as they left.

"This is why I interrupted you." Victor said. They had all gathered in the briefing room next to the medical bay. On the screen a picture of an amoebae like creature floated. "When I went to the control room to set up the communications scan an alarm was sounding. The scanners had detected an alien organism in the air. Luckily the base defenses sterilized the air automatically."

"What is it?" Mary Jane asked.

"A variation on the China anti-mutant virus." Victor said. "And I suspect the reason Namorita broke her promise."

"That plague that is running up and down the East Coast of the United States?" Simone asked.

"Yes. Apparently it has infected Atlantis as well. That is why Namor insisted on seeing me Susan."

"He needs a cure." Sue said.

"Wait a minute." Mary Jane said. "If he and Namorita were infected... that means..."

"That means they knew there were bringing a lethal airborne virus into the base." Sue said. "What better way to ensure that Victor has to find a cure?"

"What about the rest of us?" Ben asked.

"Added incentive." Sue said. "Still think I should have been fair Rebecca?"

Rebecca looked away.

"There is a puzzle to this virus." Victor said. "As part of my investigations into the world I noted the plague that broke out of New York city, but that sickness was reported cured. As I said this is a variation of the China virus, but it is not precisely the same virus, and it would not produce the same symptoms as that virus. Also I checked yesterday and found that a new virus, this virus from the similarities I can observe is now active in New York and Europe and quickly spreading.

"So what is it?" Ben asked. "A cousin virus or something?"

"I believe it is a mutation of the China virus variant that first hit New York."

"Don't they put safety caps on these things?" Ben asked. "How did it get loose in New York?"

"I know." Sue said sadly.

"I suspect our minds have deduced in parallel Susan." Victor said. He operated the controls and a number of charts appeared next to the image of the virus. "You have noted the timing on the outbreaks?"

"Yea."

"Did someone skip a real on me?" Ben asked.

"Watch the link Ben." Sue said climbing to her feet. "Everything will be clear soon enough. Victor, can you come with me please?"

Sue limped down the corridor alone. Namor and Namorita were sitting on their bunks. This time when the Sub-mariner looked up there was a calm detached look on his face.

"Interesting timeline." Sue said. "I chop off the Red Skull's head. Drugs stop flowing into Europe. Then a few weeks later they start up again, then they stop a few weeks after that. Just after they stop a plague is stopped. Then another plague starts out of New York a few weeks later and spreads. Then it shows up in Europe and spreads. One thing in common; Atlantis."

Namorita looked away and Namor's face showed no emotion.

"Let me try to lay this out." Sue said. "You think Namorita is dead. You call off the drug shipments. The Greys don't like that, but they can't attack directly, Atlantis has gotten too strong for that. So they introduce a variation on the China virus. Your people start dying, the drugs start up again. Your scientist create a variation of the virus and you introduce it into the East Coast. Even trade, your cure for their cure. Drug running stops as part of the deal you make to give the Greys the antidote. Of course you keep the food smuggling operation going. But something happens that neither side counts on. The virus mutates again. Suddenly it's everywhere and no one can stop it. So Namorita remembers that the one person who is brilliant enough to solve the whole problem is here. She breaks a promise and just to be sure we have added incentive to help, you bring the virus here and infect us all."

Sue took a deep breath and looked at Namorita.

"All of us including the little girl who saved your life and nursed you and Mystique when you were sick."

"Hundreds of our people are dying." Namor said. "Thousands of the surface dwellers are dying."

"Since when have you cared about the people on the surface Namor?" Sue snapped.

"Sue we're desperate." Namorita pleaded. "I know you hate us but..."

"I don't hate you Namorita. I hate him." Sue pointed to Namor.

"I have no choice now as I had no choice then." Namor said.

"By my count Namor the Fantastic Four put you back on your throne 3 different times." Sue said. "We saved your world and your people."

"I was grateful." Namor said. "But when your son came to me for help the Greys were ready to attack."

"So you knocked Franklin out and put a neutralizer collar around his neck and gave him to them." Sue said. She was amazed at how calm they both managed to sound. "And then you started to trade with the Greys, run drugs for the Red Skull, the plague you introduced to the United States killed hundreds, the plague that came from that plague is killing thousands."

"I did not mean for that to happen." Namor said.

"But if Atlantis wasn't threatened by the same plague you wouldn't be here would you?" Sue pressed. For a second she started to go toward the force field but stopped herself. "Would you!" she demanded as he remained silent.

"I am ruler of Atlantis." Namor said in cold voice. "My only concern is my people."

"And the hundreds of innocent people who died in your first plague? Not an issue with you were they?"

"It was the only way to fight back." Namor said.

"Victor?" Sue asked. Victor walked into the corridor. For a moment he and the sub-mariner looked at each other.

"Was this truly what I was?" Victor asked. "I would ask forgiveness Susan but I fear you would not give it."

"You were a monarch Doom." Namor said. "You know that I did what I had to do. That I had no choice."

"There is always a choice Namor." Victor said. "But those in power as you are, and as I were, seldom see those choices. We are too blinded by our power."

"Can you find a cure?" Namorita asked.

"He has too." Namor said. "Or they'll all die."

"What if there is no cure?" Sue asked. "You know there's a chance of that."

"If so I will die as my people die." Namor said.

"What about us?" Sue demanded. "Did we do anything to bring this down on us?"

"You talk in riddles of morality Susan." Victor said. He faced Namor. "There was a time sub-mariner that I would have applauded this stratagem. A time when I thought no deed, however vile, could not be done in the name of a greater cause. Even now I can understand perfectly your motives. Perhaps I can even sympathize with them. Certainly I can not gaze down upon you from some great moral height."

"I can." Sue snapped. "Didn't Namorita tell you Namor? I'm out of the world saving business. I'm not risking my life or anyone's life here for your people or anyone else outside of this base anymore."

"She did tell me." Namor said. "That is why I brought the virus. You have no choice but to help us."

"The hell we don't!" Sue shouted and both captives took a step back at the tone in her voice. "This was an alien base Namor! The Kree know all about alien viruses. Your virus was detected and sterilized before it could infect us."

"What?" Namorita asked. "But we're..."

"Still infected." Victor said. "But the anti-virus sterilizing field makes sure that the virus can not survive even for an instant outside of your body."

"You can still find a cure!" Namor demanded.

"Why should he?" Sue snapped.

"He's going to stay isn't he?" Namorita asked. "Victor and Nick both wanted to stay."

"I do not know about Nick." Victor said. "But perhaps I was wrong in my desire to stay. I look at you Namor, I see what I was and what I have all too much potential to become again. A callous creature who would kill thousands and rationalize the deed. If I stay on Earth will I become that once more?" Victor shook his head. "No. Better that I find a new destiny in the stars."

"You're not going to help us?" Namorita whispered the question in shock. Beside her Namor stood trembling in impotent fury.

"I am not sure." Victor said. "I will study this matter and this virus. There are a few days left before the ships are ready to depart."

He turned and left without another word.

"Sue please!" Namorita cried. "Talk to him!"

Without a word Sue turned and limped down the corridor. Behind her she could hear Namor's frustrated roars. When she reached the elevator Sue was trembling so much she could barely stand. Victor was waiting for her and helped her into it. Neither of them said anything as they walked back to the medical unit. But Sue cried and Victor held her.

Everyone was waiting for them. Victor helped Sue into a chair and she fell forward and buried her face in her hands. In her minds eye she could see a graveyard that extended across the world. A little girl named Sheila was in one of those graves. Sue hadn't thought about Sheila since they had left the farm. It wasn't her fault, she knew that. But she saw the image anyway.

"Are we going to help them?" Rebecca asked.

Sue sat up and wiped the tears out of her eyes. Mary Jane went over and put her hand on Sue's shoulder.

"What if we do help them?" Sue asked. "Stop this virus and they'll make a new one. Its never ending Rebecca."

"That is true Mrs. Richards." Jarvis said. Everyone looked at him, amazed that he was speaking. "But ultimately it is a false argument. I suspect you know that."

"Is it false Jarvis?" Doom asked. "As a member of the Fantastic Four Susan battled me many times, yet in some opinion polls in the United States I was rated more favorably. You of all people know what happened on the Day."

"Yes sir I do." Jarvis said. "But I was in a position to see more than the Day. It was well known that I worked for the Avengers, and while I encountered much scorn in those last few months I also encountered support."

"Now that's a false argument." Sue said. "You know that if we cast the net wide enough we can find people to save."

"This is sorta like the Three Stooges where they spent the whole movie looking for an honest man." Ben said. "And found him in prison isn't it?"

"Was that a Shemp or a Curly?" Simone asked.

"Curly." Ben replied.

Sue laughed. She threw her head back and let out the loudest, wildest laugh any of them had ever heard. It was a laugh that was tinged with madness. It was also ringed with pain. Victor and Mary Jane both moved to comfort her, looked at each other and started to step back. Then stepped forward again and Mary Jane let Victor put his hand on Sue's shoulder. The rest of them stood in awkward silence for a few minutes until Sue finally stopped.

Sue took a deep breath and again wiped the tears from her eyes.

"Ben and Johny used to love those." she said. "I'm sorry."

"It's ok." Mary Jane said.

"It is a wide net to cast when you seek to judge humanity." Victor said.

"It ain't right that we make the call for the rest of the planet." Nick said. "Boil it down and I'm just a sergeant. I never wanted SHIELD and I wasn't happy there."

"My great grandfather used to tell me that a soldier bears the ultimate curse." Jarvis said. "Because he must protect not only the flowers but the weeds."

"Cute saying." Simone said.

"He was a man who gained his wisdom through hardship." Jarvis said. "My great grandfather was a private in the Great War. For nearly four years he fought in the most barbaric conditions under generals who considered him nothing more than a resource. One of his lungs was completely destroyed by mustard gas. After the war he found no work for many years, and only by luck survived. His pension was denied him for many more years by the government because of some book keeping error. He was jailed at times for vagrancy. There was little gratitude from the people and certainly no glory. In time he managed to become a butler to one of those families of the generals who had treated him so badly in the war. For them it was an act of charity. But he encouraged his son, my father, to go into the service and protect his country. In world war 2 my father lost a leg and for many years after the war our struggle was very hard. My great grandfather was once more out of work and once again the government did not treat my family very well. And yet he encouraged me to sign up as well when I came of age. So did my father. It is a lesson I have seen Mrs. Parker instill in her children and in Rebecca as well. No one can expect it will ever end, and all you can expect from such an enterprise is pain. Governments and the populace seldom have long memories in such matters. No matter how great the service given it will sooner or later be forgotten by almost everyone. But it all comes down to a fundamental question of conscience. Can you turn away when it is within your power to help those who need it? Be it a country or thousands of people you will never meet?"

"The Avengers." Sue said. "The Defenders. The Fantastic Four. The Xmen. They all died horrible, painful deaths. If we stay and help we'll probably go that way too. If we're lucky. If we're not there'll be years of torture. She looked at Rebecca, Simone, Ben and May. "I can't even begin to tell you the kind of pain you'd go through. Look at Jan, look at my face! That could be waiting for all of us if we stay."

"Or we could fix it all." May said.

"It's late." Mary Jane said looking at them all. "We're all tired. Everyone get some sleep. Think about it. We'll hash it all out tomorrow and then we'll take a vote."

"There is something I have to do first." Sue said.

Namor and Namorita looked up as Sue limped down the corridor.

"Did you know Namor that Franklin thought I was dead?" Sue asked.

"I thought you were dead as well until only a few days ago." Namor said.

"Did it give you any pleasure to give Reed's son to the Greys?" Sue asked. "After all it was a way to get back at Reed after I chose him over you."

Namor's face turned to stone.

"If you have to ask that question Sue then you never knew me."

"I never did." Sue said. "Because the man I thought I knew wouldn't have stood by and watched my son being tortured. He wouldn't have turned my son over to the Greys."

"Take your hatred out on me, not on my people."

"If I did you'd be dead." Sue said.

"Why aren't we dead?" Namorita asked. "You could have killed us."

"I wanted to." Sue said. "But then I remembered my son. HE wouldn't have wanted me to kill you. That's why your alive Namor. Because the man you betrayed was a better man than you'll ever be you self righteous pompous son-of-a-bitch!"

Sue had snarled the last few sentences. She had poured more than a decade of hate and pain and fury into the words, imbuing the syllables with every ounce of power she could muster. But she didn't; she couldn't, wait to see if there was any impact on Namor. She turned hurriedly away and limped back down the corridor. Victor stood at the entrance.

"More than ten years." Sue said trying to blink away the tears. "I thought I could kill him, I didn't realize until just now why I couldn't. Why I didn't. I thought telling him to his face would help. It didn't."

"You have cried too many tears this day." Victor said. "If you are not careful Susan you will drown in an ocean of them. Your son is dead Susan. You must grieve for him and release his spirit."

"Tears are a woman's right Victor." Sue said. "Did you ever cry? It was hard to tell through that silly mask."

Victor stiffened.

"I would appreciate it if you did not refer to the design of my mask as; "Silly" Susan. I spent much time designing and constructing it."

Sue giggled but stilled her laughter at the look on his face.

"I'll try." she said. "Are you tired Victor?"

"Not completely."

"Then I'd like to have your help in the control room please."

It was a lie that a computer could not lie. Sue Richards had known hundreds of computers and many of them could lie. But the computers of the Kree base could not lie, not with the skill which Victor used to coax answers from them. And Sue did not believe Victor would lie. She trusted him.

_When did I start trusting him? _Sue wondered. _When did Victor and I become friends? When did I start crying on his shoulder?_

The questions went un-answered and Sue turned her mind back to the screens. On them was a dozen charts and maps.

"I thought I'd find you two here." Mary Jane said walking into the control room. She walked over to them and pulled a chair along with her. "Is that what I think it is?"

"Projections." Sue nodded. "How far the plague will go, who it will hit."

"And?"

"No one will survive." Victor said. "Even the Mandarin's kingdom will be wiped out."

"He has a cure." Mary Jane said.

"For the last one." Victor said. "Since then the scientist that provided that cure have been killed by the Greys. The Greys did not want the Mandarin to have such a defense in the next war."

"So there it is." Mary Jane said.

"There it is." Sue agreed. "And we have to stop it."

Mary Jane turned to Sue and the question was easily read on her face.

"I was ready to leave." Sue said. "I didn't care about the Sentinels or the Greys or Zemo... they could have fought it out for the next few decades, hell the next few centuries... humanity made it's choice to go with them. But I can't let millions of people, children, get sick and slowly die. I just can't."

"I didn't think you could." Mary Jane said putting her hand on Sue's arm. "Not when it gets shoved into your face like this."

"I keep thinking about the little girl who hit Jan with the slingshot." Sue said. "About what I did to her. I took her childhood away. I could do that again, but I can't let her die. Which is worse? How the hell..."

"Sue." Mary Jane stopped her. "Don't beat yourself up. What you've been through, and what happened to Jan at that farm would have pushed anyone over the edge. That little girl is better off knowing the truth, you didn't screw up her life, her parents did."

Sue sighed and then she turned to Victor.

"You can come up with a cure of course."

"Yes." he said.

"But it will take more." Mary Jane said. "Getting a cure is one thing, getting it to everyone who needs it is something else again."

"That requires a world order." Sue said. "This is your chance Victor. We both know you've been making plans. Talk to us."

"No." Mary Jane said. "Not just us Sue. Everyone. We've come that far. After breakfast tomorrow Victor can lay out his plans."

"I guess." Sue nodded. "I'm tired anyway after all this. Tomorrow Victor?"

"I will be ready."

"Wait." Sue said as she and Mary Jane headed toward the room they shared. She gestured toward a different corridor. "This way."

With Mary Jane at her side Sue walked down the shorter corridor and past three half open doors. Sue paused before a set of double doors and pushed them open.

The room was as she left it. There was no dust. The past fourteen years might not have happened. It was carpeted, not a shag carpet, but still a soft and pleasant feeling under Sue's feet. A large double bed flanked by two night stands lay under a painting of some Kree city. The bed was made of course, even as fast as they had moved to get back to New York Sue Richards would not leave an unmade bed.

"The last time I made love to Reed was here." Sue said. She limped toward the bed and sat down.

Mary Jane didn't say anything as Sue ran her hands over the alien sheets.

"Do you think we were wrong to think of leaving?"

"No." Mary Jane went over and sat next to her. "Not then. I don't think there are any really right choices to make Sue, not for you."

"For us." Sue said.

"No." Mary Jane corrected. "For you. It's not just the powers Sue, it's what you are. Just like Peter, just like Reed. You're a heroine."

"I don't want to be one anymore." Sue said. She laid down and curled up into a ball. "Even if we save the world, even if we help Victor turn it into a paradise..."

"Reed and Peter won't be coming back." Mary Jane said. She laid down behind Sue and hugged her. "Nobody will. That part of our lives is over. But Ben and May and Rebecca and Simone are here. If you need to find a reason then there's four of them."

Sue sat up and then reached over and opened the draw of the nightstand.

"There's that number again." Sue said. She sat up and then reached over to the nightstand and pulled open one of the drawers.

The charge of energy that ran through everyone the next morning could never have been described by any of them. They all stopped and looked, even Mary Jane who knew what to expect. Sue limped calmly into the room and sat down.

_If Reed was right and our unconscious desires provided the template for our powers than I guess I'm over my shyness by now. _Sue thought. _I knew they'd all stare._

The costume was modest by any standards. A pair of blue tights with a darker shade of blue gloves and boots and a belt. A blue shirt with a white circle with a blue 4 in it's center. It was the last of the costumes Sue had made so long ago. The costume of a member of the Fantastic Four.

They ate in a hushed silence; the air filled with the anticipation of what was to come. Jarvis cleared the last of the dishes and didn't even bother to wash them. Instead he sat down next to Nick and as he did so they all looked to her.

"Alright." Sue said. "You can tell by what I'm wearing that I've come to a decision."

"Either that or you've run out of clean robes." Ben said.

A small amount of laughter ran through all of them and Sue smiled at him.

"I have enough clean clothes." She said. "First things first, is there anyone here who does not want to save the world? This is your only chance to speak up. Remember what I said last night, the odds aren't good, if we fail the ones who get killed will be the lucky ones. One of those ships can take anyone who wants to go to Zen La."

Sue looked at all of them in turn but no one spoke.

"Ok then." Sue said. "Here is what I've decided to do; we are going to cure the plague, but then we're going to take over the world."

Nick nodded as if he expected nothing else and Jarvis mirrored his reaction. Ben blinked, started to say something, then stopped. Simone looked puzzled. Rebecca leaned forward, started to speak, the pulled herself back. Mary Jane's face was unreadable and May looked as if she didn't care one way or the other. A full sized Jan leaned on the table and the look in her eyes was one of complete trust.

"It's not enough to simply come up with a cure." Sue went on. "If we do and give it to the Greys or the Sentinels they'll shoot us afterwards. Then they will make sure that only those loyal to the cause will get the cure. What we have to do is make sure that everyone who needs the cure gets it, and that means we have to take out the Greys, the Sentinels, HYDRA, A.I.M., The TaskMaster, The Kingpin and probably Baron Zemo and the Mandarin as well."

"Should we each just pick a continent and go at it?" Ben asked.

"Nothing that simple." Sue said. She turned to Victor. "Your up Victor."

_He's waited more than a lifetime for this moment. _Sue realized. _There are no heroes to stop him now, and the two heroines left from the old days will help him. God am I doing the right thing? I have to be. He has changed... Hell I've cried on his shoulder, he's wiped away my tears... Reed darling forgive me..._

"Susan did not mean for this." Victor said. "Her desire to leave this planet was; as it almost always is with her, an unselfish one. She was far more concerned with the safety of all of you than her own. This I once thought was the definition of the word; "Fool", now I have come to realize that it is the definition of the world; "Heroine". And for her now to trust me, to ask that you all trust me is beyond the definitions of all the words in the English language."

Victor paused for his words to sink in then went on.

"The world at this moment is fragmented. We must unite it under one form of government. The laws of that government must be universal, with no power or influence allowed to sway it and with it's ultimate goal that of justice."

"Well that sounds simple." Ben said.

"If it were simple Ben we would not be here." Victor said.

"You were a scientist." Rebecca said. "Not a lawyer.

Before Victor could answer her the alarm sounded. The instant it did so Sue Richards realized what had happened.

_Mystique! My god why didn't I think of her? She must have been on the ship with Namorita!_

"The ships!" Victor cried and began to run toward the lift.

"Jan, Ben, Mary Jane and May got to the control room!" Sue ordered. "If it is Namor an Namorita use the environmental controls, turn the heat up and drop the humidity down."

"They need me to do that?" Ben asked.

"We forgot about Mystique." Sue said. "If she's around I want you protecting them. Everyone else find them, check the ships first."

Namor had taken one ship, Namorita the other. The look on his face was one of savage determination, the look on her face was grim sadness as they pounded into the metal hulls. Doom, Nick and Jarvis had gone to get weapons, Sue, Simone and Rebecca were the first ones on the landing field.

"Namor stop!" Sue shouted hitting him with a force bubble that sent him staggering off of the ship. Rebecca's shield hit Namorita in the back and stunned her.

"You will help us one way or another!" Namor shouted.

"We've already decided to stay!" Rebecca shouted, retrieving her shield.

"Lies!" Namor spat and turned to the ship once more.

Sue was about to hit him with another force field when a beam of red and grey energy hit her. Sue had time to glimpse Mystique hiding behind the wheel of the Quinjet before her world exploded in a pain that was nearly beyond agony. The weapon was of Greys design and Sue had never felt it, but had seen it's effects on other heroes. The grey part of the beam carried a megawatt charge, the red a form of radiation. When they hit the target the transfer of energy was enough to shatter a diamond. For Sue it was if an army of ants were tearing her nervous system to shreds. She feel writhing in pain, too far gone even to scream and stayed conscious only by a massive effort of will.

Too focused on staying awake Sue perceived the fight more as a series of impressions than actual sight. Simone and Rebecca tackled Namorita while Victor and Nick fired at Namor and Jarvis hit Mystique with a stun charge. The fight was savage with the Sub Mariner loosing all restraint as the weapons hit him. Namorita found herself nearly matched by Simone and Rebecca and completely overwhelmed when Ben showed up.

Long minutes passed as Sue's body began to recover and the chamber began to heat up. Namorita was the first to feel the heat and she was soon held by Simone and Rebecca and sealed into a web cocoon by Ben. Namor staggered under more energy bolts and Nick closed with him, hoping perhaps to take the Atlantean out with one blow to the back of the head. Sue tried to shout a warning that Namor wasn't weak enough, but she was still holding on by a thread. She was recovered enough to view the scene perfectly though. Victor was on the ground, stunned by a glancing blow from Namor. Nick Fury leapt and swung his gun, only to be met by a blow from Namor that sent him flying back. He sailed through the air and the crunching sound as his head hit the Quinjet's damaged wing was heard by all.

Everyone knew he was dead. The way he fell, the awkward way his head lay at a right angle to his body, attached only by the skin now, screamed death. That scream of death was answered by a scream that Sue had given so many years before when Reed had been hacked to death. But it wasn't Sue's voice. Rebecca's scream was followed by her shield and Namor staggered as it caught him in the stomach.

In two bounds Rebecca was on him raining down blows that Namor might have felt even if he were at full power. But the fight and the heat had weakened him so the Sub Mariner staggered and fell beneath Rebecca's blows. Not that his falling stopped her assault.

Sue dragged herself to her knees and focused as much energy as she could. She willed that energy into form and placed it between Rebecca and her victim.

"Stop it Rebecca!" Ben shouted catching one of her hands with a strand of webbing and stopping it from hitting Namor again. Simone had reached the other hand by then and was holding it.

"Let me go!" Rebecca screeched.

"Susan?" Victor asked, bending down beside her.

"Get me over there." Sue gasped out.

Victor picked her up in his arms and carried her over to where a sobbing Rebecca was barely being contained by Ben and Simone. Jarvis looked up from where Nick's body lay and shook his head. Out of the corner of her eye Sue saw Namorita crying.

"He's dead!" Rebecca screamed. "I want him dead!"

"But do you have the right to kill him?" Sue asked quietly.

The question sliced through Rebecca's rage as no other question could have. She raised her hands and saw the blood on them, then looked at Namor and saw that it was his blood. Then with a sigh Rebecca fainted into Simone's arms.

Namor looked up as Sue and Rebecca walked down the corridor. It had been five days since the break out and aside from food and water he, Namorita and Mystique had not been able to get any words at all out of their captors. Now they looked up expectantly.

Rebecca's eyes were un-readable behind her American Witch mask, but Sue's eyes were as dead as stone. She stopped in front of Namorita's cell and touched the control. The force field fell away.

"There's an explosive charge under Namor's cell." Sue said. "Try anything and he dies. Now come on."

"No!" Mystique pleaded from her cell. She threw herself at the force field as she had done many times in the past few days. "Please let me go with her."

"It's ok Mystique." Namorita said going to cell. She knelt down but was careful not to touch the force field or the control button. "It's ok." Namorita glanced back at Sue and Rebecca. If they were at all sympathetic to Mystique they weren't showing it. "I'll be ok."

"You will be." Namor said stressing the first word.

She stood and they heard Mystique's moans as they walked back down the corridor.

"Your brother is guilty of murder." Victor said flatly.

They were all in the main conference room, sitting around the table. Sue guided Namorita to a chair that faced all of them and then went and sat down next to Victor. Mary Jane, May, Jan and Ben sat on Victor's side, Jarvis, Simone and Rebecca sat on Sue's side. One chair beside Rebecca was turned away from the table.

__

He's guilty of more than that. Sue thought. _But I'll let it stand there, Rebecca's pain is fresher and it's up to her to face this. She's handled it ok so far. At least she had time and room to cry. But her crying is done for now. All of our crying is done. What are the stages of grief? Anger, denial, acceptance? I should know, I've known enough grief. But then so has everyone else on the planet. It's time to stop grieving and start doing something about it. _Into Sue's mind rose the memory of a large battlefield in a desert, when she and Jan alone had hidden. She had looked at out the wreckage of her life and decided to leave. To run. _No more. No more running. This world needs fixing and if I'm not smart enough to fix it Victor is and I'm damn sure powerful enough to help him._

"So what now?" Namorita asked. "You said you were going to stay."

"And you ignored us and kept on fighting." Sue said. "Fight first, think later. That the Atlantean way?"

"We were scared."

"You planned it." Sue said. "Or Namor did. That's why you had Mystique hiding in the Mole Man's drill machine, shielded from scans. That's why she had a Greys weapon designed to work against me."

Namorita didn't respond to the accusation. Instead she asked a question.

"Are you going to stay?"

"Yes." Victor said. He stood up and walked behind Sue, putting a hand on her shoulder. Sue reached up and put her hand on his. "Susan had decided to make that sacrifice before your attack."

"But we're not just going to give you the cure." Rebecca said. Her voice was hard but under control. Simone quietly moved closer to her.

"We are not staying just to cure the plague." Sue said. "We are staying to fix things."

"Fix things?" Namorita looked at them all as if seeing them for the first time. Sue saw the change in her face as Namorita realized that this was not the same group she had left weeks before.

"We all think that Victor's plans will work." Sue said. "It will take years and I doubt we'll be applauded in history even if we succeed." Sue looked at Jarvis and they exchanged a look of understanding. "But who cares about history. We are going to reshape this world and humanity and whoever tries to stop us will loose."

There was no way Namorita could have stopped the look of fear from crossing her face and Sue doubted she even tried.

"What do you want from me?"

"Namor is guilty of murder." Victor said. "It was a needless death brought about by the Sub Mariner's refusal to listen. He will never again be free to roam the seas. He will be kept here, or in another prison to be decided upon by us."

"We won't kill him." Rebecca said. "That's not our way."

"But he has proven himself unfit to rule." Victor said. "Mystique will be allowed to go with you back to Atlantis. There you can distribute the cure to the plague and rule in his stead."

"Me rule Atlantis?"

"You can rule Namorita." Victor said. "You could always rule, you just did not wish to. That was why you never opposed your brother. You will go back, but your rule will be under our direction. To win the coming battles we have need of some of the resources of Atlantis."

"In a nutshell it's this." Sue said. "You rule Atlantis, you give us what we need, your people live. You help us. Namor stays in a cell."

"And rots." Rebecca muttered.

Victor sat down next to Sue.

"Do you agree?"

Slowly, looking at all of them and seeing no break in the line, Namorita nodded.

End.

__


End file.
